Grand Killing Game: Academy for Dangerous Ultimates
by GKinni
Summary: Killing Games. They revolve around gathering sixteen Ultimate Students and forcing them into a life or death situation. However, there are many kinds of Ultimates, some of whom with very dangerous talents. What would happen if all sixteen of the participants were like that?
1. Dangerous Talents

Shuuichi Saihara's life had never been even close to what could be considered normal. He had talked with some of the worst and cruelest criminals in the world before his age reached double digits. He knew so many state secrets that he couldn't go to an ordinary school, instead being home schooled in very protected military bases. And one couldn't forget the fact that he was technically a captain in terms of military rank, despite never having joined the army.

Still, suddenly waking up in a locker inside a school that was sealed off from the outside world, and having the first person he met there be the famous Ultimate Pianist Kaede Akamatsu... that was weird even by his standards.

"So, you have no idea how you could have gotten here?" Kaede asked.

"No." Shuuichi said. He was used to lying, but that was in fact the actual truth.

"Neither do I." Kaede said "I guess... we should look around to see what we can find."

They left the room together, and things did not get any less surreal from there. They were soon approached by some kind of super-advanced robotic plush bear. He called himself Monokuma, and told them that every one of their questions would be answered in time.

After that, the two found their way out of the school, only to discover that the entire school grounds was surrounded by a huge dome. And without seeing any other choice, the two decided to explore what they could of the place and meet up with the other teenagers that had also been trapped inside.

And they were a very varied group of characters. There was Angie Yonaga, Ultimate Artist:

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"That title isn't really right. Atua is the one with the talent, and I only act according to his will." She said.

Angie was a dark-skinned and white-haired girl. She was dressed lightly, in an open coat, bikini top and short jeans, but the most remarkable part of her appearance was that all of her exposed skin (with the exception of the face) was covered by tattoo-like artistic designs, like she was a living canvas.

"Atua... So does that mean you are one of the Children of Atua?" Shuuichi asked. He had heard about that religion before, but didn't really know much.

"Exactly. As the voice of Atua, it is my duty to guide His followers according to His will." Angie said.

"So, you're the leader?" Kaede asked.

"Yeah. But I just follow Atua's wishes." Angie said "Speaking of that, are either of you interested in becoming followers of Atua? He accepts everyone, because all are worthy in the eyes of Atua!"

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There was also Kaito Momota:

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"My name is Kaito Momota, Astronaut in Training!" He declared energetically.

"Can you be an astronaut in training while still in high school?" Kaede asked, doubtfully.

"Normally you can't, but I found a way, because Kaito Momota can break all barriers!" He gave a thumbs up.

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As well as Kirumi Toujou, Ultimate Maid:

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"Well, of course I know about you. Kirumi Toujou is a pretty famous name." Kaede said.

"I could say the same thing to you." Kirumi replied with a smile.

"And my name is Shuuichi Saihara." He introduced himself to Kirumi.

She already knew who he was, of course. But she didn't reveal his secret. Just like he didn't reveal hers.

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Rantaro Amami:

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"My name is Rantaro Amami. And I hope this place isn't what I think it is?" He said.

"What do you think it is?" Kaede asked.

"I'd rather not say." He refused to explain.

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Also Kokichi Ouma:

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"I am the Ultimate Supreme Leader. I lead an evil secret organization with over ten thousand members!" The boy bragged.

"I don't think 'Supreme Leader' is a talent recognized by the Ultimate Initiative." Shuuichi pointed out, reasonably enough.

"Are you saying that I'm lying?" Kokichi challenged.

"Are you?" Kaede didn't back down.

Kokichi threw his hands to the air and left in a huff "Seriously, those people..."

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Tenko Chabashira too:

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She had ignored Shuuichi's greeting as if he wasn't even there, but spoke with Kaede eagerly enough.

"My name is Tenko. Tenko Chabashira. Of course I know about the famous pianist, Kaede Akamatsu!"

And things had proceeded in that manner, with Tenko gushing over and complimenting Kaede, who showed to Shuuichi an apologetic expression.

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Miu Iruma:

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"I-I-I'm Miu Iruma! I hope you bastards know who you're dealing with!" She pointed a shaky finger at them.

She was a strange combination of meek and aggressive. Shuuichi had heard about her, but her personality was quite different from what he had imagined.

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Korekiyo Shinguuji, the Ultimate Anthropologist:

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"I don't know who was it that places all of us here. But I shall take advantage of the opportunity in order to observe all those interesting people." He declared.

"It's nice to know that you can still focus on your talent, even in a situation like this." Kaede said.

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Gonta Gokuhara, the Ultimate Entomologist:

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"Gonta is looking for bugs, but he not find any bugs here. It's strange." He mentioned.

"Really, no bugs?" Shuuichi was surprised "That would mean that this place is really isolated from the outside world."

"So it seems." Kaede said.

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Himiko Yumeno:

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"My name is Himiko Yumeno, but I also have another identity..." The girl said, in a mysterious voice "I am Kaitou Magi, the Magical Phantom Thief!" She declared.

Shuuichi looked at her doubtfully. The girl was wearing boots and a cape which were fairly similar to what the famous thief had on her outfit. But he was simply unable to connect that girl, who seemed like she was about to fall asleep on her feet, with the running and leaping majestic menace that had played police forces around the world for fools.

"I think I know you..." Kaede said "Weren't you the girl who handed yourself in when the police unit of Akiba asked Magi to hand herself in?"

"Yeah." Himiko answered "They were so polite that I had to do it, but then they turned me away for some reason..."

Shuuichi could not avoid showing a baffled expression.

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As well as K1B0, the Ultimate Robot:

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"But you can call me Keebo. I was created and then raised by Professor Idabashi." The robotic boy said.

"I heard a lot about Professor Idabashi." Kaede said "He was one of the leading minds in the field of robotics, but apparently it's been a while since he's shown any new work."

Hearing that, Keebo seemed to become embarrassed "Well... I think raising me has been consuming most of his attention." He said, touching his index fingers together.

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Tsumugi Shirogane, the Ultimate Cosplayer:

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"Haa... I really hope this situation isn't like the Last Escape series or something..." She said.

"I never heard of that series. Is it anime, games or what?" Kaede asked.

"It's a video game trilogy. The plot of it is very complex." Tsumugi replied.

"Have you ever cosplayed as someone from that series?" Kaede continued the conversation.

The two of them really seemed to have hit it off.

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Maki Harukawa:

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"My name is Maki Harukawa." She said.

That was pretty much all they could get out of her. She really didn't seem to want to talk.

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And finally, the ex-Ultimate Tennis Pro, Ryoma Hoshi.

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"No, I have no idea how I could have gotten here. I was being held in a maximum security prison after all." Ryoma said.

"Whoever did all this, certainly has some real power." Kaede said.

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Some of them were Ultimates, others were not, but all in all it was a strange and disparate group that didn't seem to share any similarities. However, they had all been chosen for some reason, and Shuuichi was trying to think of what it should be when screens around the whole school lit up and showed Monokuma, who called all the students to the gym.

Said bear showed up very flamboyantly and sat down on the podium, before starting to speak:

"You guys must be wondering why you have all been gathered here... The answer is simple, you are here to play a game!" He said.

"A game?" Someone asked.

"Exactly!" He confirmed "You guys must have realized that this place is completely sealed off from the outside world. This is intentional, so as to give you guys motivation to play the game!

"Because winning the game means you will be released and allowed to go back home, or wherever you want, really.

"And what is the goal of this game, you ask? Simple! It is to commit a Perfect Murder!" He said threateningly "If you are able to kill one of your classmates and get away with it, you shall be released from the academy!"

"What?!" Kaede asked, full of indignation.

"Of course, committing a Perfect Murder is no easy matter." He continued as if Kaede hadn't said anything "After each death, there will be a period for investigations, and after that all the surviving students will participate in a class trial, where they will discuss and attempt to figure out the killer.

"After that, they will vote, and if the person with the most votes is the killer, then he will be executed. However, if the person with the most votes isn't the killer, then he will win and be allowed to leave the academy, while all the other students will be executed in their place."

With this, Monokuma seemed to have ended his speech. The full impact of the situation bore down on top of the teenagers. In the end, the first one to recover from the shock and speak, was actually Rantaro:

"Why have we been chosen for this game?" He asked.

"Fuhuhu... That is a very good question." Monokuma said "It was because all of you are Ultimates, but not ordinary Ultimates. All of you possess talents that were considered extremely dangerous."

He raised his arms to the air for a moment and then started talking, pointing at students as he did so.

"Rantaro Amami, the Ultimate Survivor.

"Kaede Akamatsu, the Ultimate Spy.

"Tsumugi Shirogane, the Ultimate Mastermind.

"Ryoma Hoshi, the Ultimate Prisoner.

"Kaito Momota, the Ultimate Cheater.

"Himiko Yumeno, the Ultimate Phantom Thief.

"Maki Harukawa, the Ultimate Indoctrinator.

"Gonta Gokuhara, the Ultimate Ambassador.

"Kokichi Ouma, the Ultimate Rebel.

"Tenko Chabashira, the Ultimate Assassin.

"Kirumi Toujou, the Ultimate Supreme Leader.

"K1B0, the Ultimate Weapon.

"Miu Iruma, the Ultimate Mad Scientist.

"Korekiyo Shinguuji, the Ultimate Medium.

"Angie Yonaga, the Ultimate Cult Leader.

"And Saihara Shuuichi, the Ultimate Interrogator."

After finishing, Monokuma started to laugh madly.


	2. Ultimate Tools

Monokuma's words were utterly shocking and unexpected, and Shuuichi's eyes took note of the reactions of the other students, almost without input from him.

Rantaro narrowed his eyes slightly, seeming almost like he had expected something like this. That reaction was mirrored by Tsumugi.

Ryoma, Maki, Kaito and Keebo all showed anger to varying degrees, from Kaito's obvious scowl to Maki glaring to Keebo clenching his fists.

Miu cringed openly, recoiling as if struck. Gonta looked confused but wary. And Himiko, weirdly enough, simply nodded as if there was nothing wrong with what had been said.

Kokichi and Kirumi showed eerily similar expressions, with a sort of calculating look that vanished almost instantly. Shuuichi had a sudden mad thought that they were mother and child, just because of how well they mirrored each other.

Angie, Korekiyo and Tenko were united in their reaction: Absolutely none. Their expressions didn't shift the least bit, even to Shuuichi's trained eyes.

And finally, there was Kaede, whose expression went through rapid changes, first going through shock, then flashing into anger before settling into a face of steely determination.

For a moment, he wondered how his own expression would have looked like, but there was no mirror for him to confirm it, so he forgot about it.

After a moment of silence, Kaede was the first of them to actually say something back to Monokuma:

"Listen to me." She spoke in a low tone "I don't know who is in charge of all of this, but if you are watching... Know that this is not going to end the way you want, that I guarantee you."

Monokuma grinned upon hearing that "Oh, looks like one of you is a feisty character! Looks like things aren't going to be boring!" He gave one last laugh before jumping away from view.

Kaede had attracted everyone's attention, but the first to say something to her was Kokichi:

"Oh, and do you have any plans for that, Miss Spy?" He said with just the slightest tinge of sarcasm.

Kaede didn't seem bothered by it "I just said what I meant." She replied.

"Well, I agree with the sentiment, at least." Rantaro said.

Shuuichi remembered his previous interactions, and decided to push "Actually, I'm curious about something, Rantaro." Shuuichi looked directly at him "You had an idea about what this was... Was it right?"

Everyone else looked at Rantaro, curious.

"... I suppose it wouldn't hurt to explain that." He said, after a moment of silence "First, you need to understand what my Talent means."

After seeing that everyone was paying attention, he continued "My Title of Ultimate Survivor comes from being a veteran at Death Games, which are illegal underground games with a huge risk of death but offering amazing prizes to compensate. I've won a few of them, and so I got to know a little about the Death Game Underworld.

"And that includes how, once, one of the managers of a particular death game spoke to me about a particular death game that he considered to be a disgrace for a variety of reasons, the most prominent ones being the fact that the participants were unwilling as well as the only reward for victory being survival.

"It was the 'Ultimate Academy Killing Game', a show where sixteen Ultimate Students are trapped together and forced to kill each other in order to be able to escape. And from his descriptions, I had suspected that this was the place he was talking about." He finished.

"A show?" Ryoma asked, warily.

"Yes." Rantaro nodded "A lot of death games are broadcast, but this one has a particular emphasis on that aspect, from what the guy told me. I don't know the exact details though."

The Ultimates processed those words, and then it was Kirumi's turn to speak:

"Does anyone else have anything that could be useful to reveal?"

Surprisingly, Angie was the one to reply "One of the Children of Atua is someone who was once a participant in one of those games. In his experience, the Ultimates were periodically given 'motives' to get them to kill each other."

"That makes sense, considering that this is something to be watched." Korekiyo said "The motives would both help move things along as well as serve as focal points for the viewers."

After that, no one else appeared with any new information, and so the sixteen teenagers separated, as if trying to get some time alone to clear up their thoughts.

However, he and Kaede were an exception, and wandered off together, eventually ending up sitting next to each other in one of the tables on the games room. They needed to talk.

"So, you're a spy, then...?" Shuuichi said carefully "Do you want to talk about it?"

Kaede sighed and looked at him "I guess there's no point in keeping a secret, after what Monokuma said. Well... where do I start...?"

She closed her eyes for a moment before continuing to talk "Everything began when I was eleven." She said, her eyes distant "I was already a famous pianist, and I was going to the Netherlands for a recital.

"That was when a few government agents contacted me, and asked if I would be willing to help my country." She put her hands together "They said that the place I would be going to was exactly where they needed something delivered, and I was someone who would be above suspicion.

"I said yes, and they gave me a small device and told me where to plant it." She sighed again "It was truly nothing dangerous or difficult. I put it in place and it managed to record some important conversations, though I only learned the specifics later. They thanked me and I thought that would be it.

"But that ended up not being the case. As my fame grew, I ended up getting invited to play in more and more places... And apparently I had showed potential. Little by little they had me doing jobs that got increasingly important and complex. I learned more about the state of the world than any child ever should... And by then I couldn't turn back.

"I had to do it. I was the only one who could do those things, and I did a lot of stuff that I'm not proud of." Kaede had tears in her eyes, but her voice was level "I told myself I had to do them, but that didn't mean my decisions didn't haunt me. Still, I kept going, and I completed every mission that I went on so far."

She went silent, and Shuuichi was momentarily at a loss for what to say. But then he decided that it was just right and proper for him to respond to her confession with one of his own.

"In my case, I never really had a choice." He started talking. Kaede looked at him in surprise "My uncle gave me a special test when I was seven, something he had developed himself. The results told him that I had 'potential'" Shuuichi spoke that word with disgust "for what he was planning. He went with the results to the government and convinced them to give it a try."

Shuuichi shook his head "I was pretty much kidnapped from my home and taken to a secret military base, where they forced me into a 'special training program'." Again, those words seemed to have a very negative meaning for Shuuichi "They forced all sorts of psychological knowledge into my head under threat of beatings if I didn't learn fast enough.

"They showed me horrifying videos as a form of shock therapy so that my mind wouldn't be disturbed by anything. And then they put me to talk with criminals of all sorts, ordering me to extract information from them." Shuuichi shook his head "The first time they did that, I was only eight years old.

"And after that, they simply did not intend to let me go. They allowed my parents to visit once in a while, as long as I kept doing what they wanted. They also gave me toys, food or whatever random thing I decided to want, in order to keep me 'happy'." He stopped for a moment "I never saw my uncle again. I suppose he may have ended up being killed in order to keep the secret, since he knew, unlike my parents, who never got a real explanation. If that's the case, I can only say 'good riddance'." He finished, feeling somewhat lighter after saying all that.

Kaede looked at him with an empathetic gaze. She did not say anything, but she didn't really need to. The two spent a bit of time in companionable silence.

"About the thing you said..." Shuuichi was the one to break the silence "The thing about this not ending like they wanted... Do you have any ideas about how to do that?"

Kaede smiled slightly for a moment "I think the most important thing would be Unity." She said "This game is designed to put us against each other, so the best way to deal with it would be by joining our forces."

"This seems like it would be hard to do." Shuuichi said.

Kaede nodded "But not impossible. The first thing to do would be getting to know each other, sharing information and creating links between everyone." Her expression became somber "And if some of us die, we will need to have those links, because otherwise, the group would collapse, and everyone would become alone, just like __they__ want."

Upon hearing that, Shuuichi's emotions were stirred. Everything that Kaede was saying... It was too good to be true. He knew that she was the Ultimate Spy, and he even kept that in mind, but he couldn't detect even a trace of falsity in her words.

He wanted to believe it, he desperately wanted to, even as the voice in his head kept telling him that there was no way he would be that lucky. Shuuichi decided to ask another question:

"Can you really trust in everyone to just come together and help each other?" His voice was almost pleading "Can you do that, even though you don't even know them? Won't you regret it if they betray you?"

Upon hearing that, Kaede looked at him with sadness mixed with determination in her eyes "I never regretted trusting anyone, even when I was betrayed." She spoke, sounding like she was remembering something "Trust is different from blind faith. True trust can only come from really knowing someone. I only regretted not being able to really understand those people, not being able to really become their friend." She closed her eyes and shook her head slightly "And if I wasn't able to trust anymore, I would have lost the most important part of myself."

Shuuichi closed his eyes and stayed silent for a bit, trying to process what Kaede was saying, and trying to deal with the maelstrom of emotions it was causing inside his heart. The pianist didn't interrupt, and simply let him reach a conclusion on his own.

"I understand." He said "And after getting to know the others, do you have any other plans?"

Shuuichi eventually decided to trust in Kaede. And the part that really made this happen wasn't the fact that he didn't see any lies or manipulation on her words, but simply her statement that she would not regret trusting, even if betrayed. That felt like such an empowering prospect to him... Like he didn't need to worry about being betrayed, because being able to trust was already enough of a reward on its own.

If Kaede understood what he was thinking at the time, she didn't show it. The girl got a thoughtful expression on her face for a few moments, and then shrugged.

"That will depend on the way things develop." She said "What skills the others have, what resources we can find, what are the actions of the people behind the game..." Kaede sighed "With what we know right now, trying to make long-term plans is seriously difficult."

Shuuichi nodded, and then yawned.

"You're feeling tired? So am I." Kaede teased him, with a slight smile "I think we should go look at the dormitory rooms those people prepared, since we are going to be using them at least for a while." She spoke in a more serious tone.

Shuuichi agreed with the idea, and both of them made their way to the dormitory, a two floor building with sixteen rooms, one for each of the participants of the game, which were helpfully indicated by stylized eight bit depictions of them above each of the doors. The two of them went to their own doors, but when they tried to open them, they discovered that the doors were locked.

"How do I get this open?" Shuuichi asked the air.

"Did you ask for meeee?!" Monokuma replied, appearing suddenly and startling Shuuichi and Kaede.

"Wha-" He spoke.

"Oh, you want to go in your rooms? That's easy! The only reason they are locked is because I want to guarantee your privacy." Monokuma said "Here's the key to your room!" He gave a key to Shuuichi and then disappeared from sight before reappearing next to Kaede and doing the same to her.

Shuuichi wondered what he meant by guaranteeing their privacy, but still used the key to unlock the room and step inside. It was a large, suite-style room. There were not many furnishings inside, but it looked comfortable and nice.

However, there was something that immediately struck Shuuichi as weird and out of place. It was a small envelope, and coming closer, he could see that it was addressed to him. He knew that there could be nothing good inside that envelope, but he was simply unable to prevent himself from opening it.

Inside there were only two things: A small handwritten note, and a sheet of paper. Looking at the note first, he saw what it said:

"To the Ultimate Interrogator:

As one of the participants of the Killing Game, you have been provided with a tool to make the best use of your talent. The information on the paper is one hundred percent accurate, so you can rely on it to make your decisions. Happy Killing!"

Shuuichi was numb as he finished reading, and then he looked at the sheet of paper without even thinking. It was face pictures of all fifteen of his fellow Ultimates, accompanied by names and a few descriptive words.

Kaede Akamatsu. Honest, Emotional, Relentless.

Rantaro Amami. Calm, Methodical, Fearless.

Tenko Chabashira. Single-Minded. Obedient. Obsessive.

Tsumugi Shirogane. Driven. Contrary. Two-Faced.

Kirumi Toujou. Calm. Active. Lacks Hesitation.

Miu Iruma. Fearful. Obedient. Lacks Forethought.

Angie Yonaga. Single-Minded. Steady. Complete Confidence.

Gonta Gokuhara. Simple. Emotional. Confidence Problems.

Himiko Yumeno. Steady. Ambivalent. Fearless.

Kokichi Ouma. Calm. Trickster. Obsessive.

Kaito Momota. Emotional. Driven. Lacks Forethought.

Ryoma Hoshi. Passive. Ambivalent. Hopeless.

Korekiyo Shinguuji. Steady. Methodical. Lacks Hesitation.

Maki Harukawa. Repressed. Ambivalent. Self-Loathing.

K1B0. Passive. Emotional. Confidence Problems.

Shuuichi knew what it meant. Those words may seem simple, but they were all he needed to know how to extract information from any of them. Feeling dazed, he stepped out of the room (locking it behind himself without even thinking about it) and came face to face with Kaede, who had left her room around the same time.

She saw his face, and then said:

"You got one as well, right?"

And showed a sheet of paper to him.

Shuuichi nodded stiffly, and walked towards Kaede, taking deep breaths to calm himself down. Once he reached her, Kaede handed him her sheet of paper and he exchanged it for his own without any hesitation. He looked at the page: It was very similar to his, except that instead of the descriptive words, what it had was short sentences:

Tsumugi Shirogane. Wishes for: A Happy Ending.

Himiko Yumeno. Wishes for: Smiles from Everyone.

Gonta Gokuhara. Wishes for: Peace and Understanding.

Shuuichi Saihara. Wishes for: Freedom.

Korekiyo Shinguuji. Wishes for: A Simple Life.

Angie Yonaga. Wishes for: Nothing.

Maki Harukawa. Wishes for: Freedom.

Kaito Momota. Wishes for: Recognition.

Kokichi Ouma. Wishes for: Change.

K1B0. Wishes for: Peace and Understanding.

Ryoma Hoshi. Wishes for: A Purpose.

Tenko Chabashira. Wishes for: A Better World.

Kirumi Toujou. Wishes for: The Happiness of People.

Miu Iruma. Wishes for: Friendship.

Rantaro Amami. Wishes for: Safety for his Sisters.

Wishes. Shuuichi felt weird with having his desires summed up in the single word "freedom", but he couldn't say that it was inaccurate.

He and Kaede exchanged looks, and then she spoke:

"I wonder what the others got."

Shuuichi was wondering about that as well.


	3. Dangerous Conversations

The two talked a little bit more, but after that they both went into their rooms. The day had been eventful, filled with shocking moments and emotional conversations, and that last discovery was simply one thing too many. They were both tired, and decided to head back into their rooms and turn in for the night.

Shuuichi was in fact so tired that he fell into sleep just after lying down on the bed. If he had any dreams during the night, he did not remember them.

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"Good morning, everyone! It is now 7:00 AM. Rise and shine!" Was the sound that startled Shuuichi awake on the following day.

Looking up, he could see that the screen inside his room had turned on, and was showing Monokuma, right before it turned off again.

Shuuichi sat on the bed and put his thoughts in order. And examining his feelings, he was somewhat surprised to notice a certain lightness in his thoughts, despite how harsh the current situation was. And after thinking a little, he realized that it wasn't really something so difficult to understand.

He had been ripped away from his normal life, but that life wasn't something that he actually liked, and despite his current situation seeming terrible, he had been able to actually talk about his situation with someone who could empathize, and now he had an actual goal, something he really wanted to do.

Sighing a little bit, Shuuichi got up and brushed his teeth, and then left the room, and soon after Kaede did the same. She asked if he was hungry, and upon receiving a positive response, she led the way towards the cafeteria that they had seen on the previous day.

They were planning on checking the storage for food and doing something simple, but when they got there, it turned out to not have been necessary.

"Good day, you two." Kirumi greeted them once they got inside "I've taken the liberty of waking up early to make some preparations in order to make breakfast for everyone. What would you like to eat?"

Kaede immediately asked for a dish with a strange name (it was apparently something she had tasted in India and liked), while Shuuichi decided that an ordinary dish of rice, miso soup, grilled fish and vegetables sounded pretty good.

Kirumi immediately headed to the kitchen in order to prepare what they wanted, and despite him knowing that she was supposedly still a maid, having the shadow prime-minister of Japan prepare food for him still felt pretty weird.

But the food was really delicious. Shuuichi hadn't realized that a simple breakfast could be tasty to such an extent. For a few minutes, he was barely aware of the outside world, only having enough sense to realize that Kaede was in the same situation: a haze of culinary enjoyment.

By the time he managed to recover his consciousness, Shuuichi realized that there were already a lot of other people in other tables on the cafeteria, eating and talking. In one table, there were Rantaro and Angie, apparently in a very deep conversation that involved lots of gestures.

In another were Kirumi and Kokichi, who were eating with smiles while they stared at each other in a polite, yet threatening way. And in yet another table were Himiko, Tenko and Maki. The former was simply watching the show as Tenko tried valiantly to have a conversation with the third girl. It wasn't going well.

"So, I guess we should begin." Kaede spoke suddenly, bringing Shuuichi's attention back to her.

"It's time to start operation: making friends." She continued "The first step of the operation is splitting up."

"Splitting up?" Shuuichi was already having second thoughts about the plan.

"Yes." Kaede nodded "Acting as a duo would make people more defensive and less likely to open up. The best option would be moving alone and approaching people that are in small groups, maybe 2 to 4 people at once."

"You've... really thought this through, haven't you?" Shuuichi said, his heart sinking as he realized that there was no way to convince her otherwise.

"Yep! Knowing how to make friends easily in my most prided skill!" She nodded with a smile "And there are three such groups right here, conveniently enough. Do you have any preferences?"

Shuuichi took a deep breath. He really didn't want to even get close to the disaster currently going on with the three girls, and Kokichi and Kirumi seemed to have quite a lot of tension going on, so Shuuichi pointed at the Rantaro and Angie table.

"Right. Let's go then!" Kaede said, and she got up and walked in the direction of the Kokichi and Kirumi table. Shuuichi sighed slightly and then did the same towards his chosen target.

"So, you're saying that if I pray to Atua, my sisters will be alright?" Rantaro was speaking, somehow without having a single note of sarcasm present on his voice.

"Well, yeah, but that doesn't really mean anything, does it?" Angie replied, in a questioning tone "You've already decided to make that true, so it's not like Atua has to do anything."

"That's a surprisingly realistic way of looking at things." Rantaro observed "Then what was it that you meant?"

"Atua can give you support for anything you may want to do. You don't need it for that, but you may have other things that Atua can help with." Angie replied.

"Hm... I understand..." Rantaro said, then he turned to look at Shuuichi, who had just arrived "Ah, Shuuichi, do you need something?"

For a moment, Shuuichi was unsure of how to respond. Then he decided that honesty would be the best policy "I just... wanted to get to know you guys."

Rantaro nodded "Then you're in luck, Angie and me were just talking about her religion. It's pretty interesting."

"Speaking of that..." Angie said "It's about time for me to make my blood offering. Do you want to come and watch?"

"A blood offering?" Rantaro was surprised "You didn't talk about that... But why not, seems interesting." He decided.

"I'll go as well." Shuuichi said, deciding that he couldn't retreat yet, despite the talk of "blood offering" giving him a bad feeling.

"Okay then, let's go." Angie said, getting up from the table, followed by Rantaro and Shuuichi.

"So, making a blood offering is some kind of special ritual for Atua's religion?" Rantaro asked, while they were walking.

"Not exactly." Angie replied lightly "It's more of a way to sharpen one's devotion to Atua. I do it everyday, but that is simply because, as the Voice of Atua, I have very high demands for myself. A few of the Children of Atua do similar things, but it is not actually required."

"Hmm... I understand." Shuuichi said, feeling that it was a lot more benign what what he had been expecting.

Soon after, Angie reached the place she was looking for: A small tree right next to the path outside the school. She made the two stop with a gesture and walked a bit forward to stop right in front of it. Then she took a pair of small wood-carving knives out of her handbag.

With a quick, well practiced motion, she held one knife on each hand, and swiped in such a way as to make cuts on the underside of each of her forearms, using the knife from the opposite hand.

But that wasn't the most surprising thing. The cuts she made weren't small. In fact, each line was about 30 centimeters long, crossing the entire length of each of her forearms. And they weren't shallow cuts either. They looked like the sort of cuts people would make while attempting suicide.

Shuuichi had seen a lot of screwed up things, but even then he got startled by Angie's actions, specially her nonchalance and the lack of any demonstration of pain, like a grimace. Rantaro was also someone who had gone through a lot from what Shuuichi knew, and his reaction was a surprised blink.

She let the blood pour into the ground for four long seconds, before putting the carving knives back into her bag and taking out a towel and a roll of bandages. She used the towel to wipe away most of the blood on her forearms and then wrapped them up in bandages.

Nodding, she put the things back on her handbag and turned to them "Done." She said.

Shuuichi had absolutely no idea about how to reply to that. Thankfully, he didn't need to, because Rantaro did it for him.

"Are you sure those cuts are alright?" He asked, sounding more curious than concerned "If they scar, wouldn't that ruin your skin art?"

'So that's what he's worried about?' Shuuichi thought, feeling out of his depth.

"You don't need to worry about that. There were already scars there, and the new scars will also be used as part of the art." Angie replied, with a serene smile "Those are not even the only scars I use like that."

"Really? That's interesting." Rantaro said "I don't really notice any scars at all. Your artistic skills are really something, to be able to make them blend in like that. Could you show me one, or is that too personal?"

Shuuichi couldn't quite identify what Rantaro's tone of voice meant. It sounded somehow... eager.

"Nyahaha. It's no problem at all!" Angie said, turning around "But it's actually Atua that has the artistic abilities, it's just that I can channel his skills well." She reached a hand to her neck to move her hair out of the way "This part is a scar as well. Can you tell what it is?"

She was pointing towards a small pinkish section that served as the tongue of a shark in the art. Shuuichi looked at it and felt a tiny bit of familiarity, like he had seen something of that color and consistency before.

"It's a burn scar, isn't it?" Rantaro said, revealing the mystery "And it's third degree too. How did you get such a localized third degree burn?" He asked.

"Blowtorch." Angie said, turning back to them "It was another one of the rituals I did to sharpen my devotion."

Shuuichi was aghast at the very idea, but Angie kept talking.

"You sound like you know quite a bit about scars. Do you have any interesting ones?" She asked.

Shuuichi was surprised to hear a note in Angie's voice that was similar to what Rantaro's had been. And along with it, he detected a sense of... challenge?

"I do have quite a few scars of my own, and some of them are indeed interesting." Rantaro said, before raising his left hand and showing the circular marks on the palm and back of it "What do you think of this one?"

That was when Shuuichi finally understood the subtext of that conversation. It was rivalry. The two had apparently managed to trigger some kind of weird rivalry about scars.

Angie looked at the marks with curiosity, then said:

"That's pretty impressive to have matching scars from something going all the way through. If I'm not mistaken, this should be a gunshot wound, right?"

Rantaro nodded "That's right. There was a guy who was trying to shoot me, so I tried to grab his gun, but wasn't quite fast enough." He smiled "Still, it was enough to prevent him from hitting something vital, so it was worth it."

"Ahaha. That is certainly an interesting scar!" Angie said, clapping her hands together "But what do you think about this one?" She asked, showing a black ring around her neck.

And with this, Shuuichi was sure. Those two were definitely trying to one-up each other on the matter of scars. They were pretty low-key, but both of them seemed to have a competitive side.

At that time, Rantaro quickly managed to identify what the mark was:

"Those are... hanging marks." He said "Did you hang yourself?" He asked.

"Yep, yep!" Angie confirmed "I also got a few rope burns on my hands, since I didn't think to bring a knife to cut the rope, so I had to climb it." She then shook her head "But those already faded, sooo..."

"Right. I imagine that would have been a difficult situation." Rantaro said "But what do you think about this?"

He showed his right wrist, which had a very well defined scar running all around it.

"Ohhh..." Angie looked at it "They did a really good job reattaching your hand." She commented.

"That's right." Shuuichi said, finally finding a subject he had some experience on "You could have removed the scar completely with plastic surgery, but I can see why you didn't."

"Haha, yeah." Rantaro laughed a bit "This one was from when I was playing high stakes Mahjong. I bet my hand and lost, but it managed to attract the attention of my opponent enough for me to cheat, and then I won my hand back, along with what I was actually trying to get at that time." He twisted his wrist a bit "It was fast enough that I could get a doctor to fix it, but I haven't recovered full dexterity on this hand yet, though I'm getting there."

"That makes me think of something.." Shuuichi said, before Angie could share another one of her stories "That was this one guy who tried to intimidate me by showing the scars he got from being stabbed a bunch of times." He remembered "Thinking about how proud he was of them, I can't help but find it a little funny, considering the current situation."

Hearing this, Rantaro snorted, and Angie couldn't help but giggle a bit.

"Oh, did he make a big deal about the number of stabs?" Rantaro asked "I met a guy like that as well, but he shut up once I showed him some of my own scars."

Shuuichi imagined the scene and laughed, causing the other two to lose the rest of their restraint and do the same thing.

Things hadn't been exactly how he expected, but Shuuichi felt that the conversation had gone well, all things considered.

+0+

While Shuuichi was talking with the duo, Kaede had elected to approach the other duo. They stopped their conversation to look at her when she approached, but Kaede didn't mind, and simply pulled out a chair to sit at the same table.

"Good morning." She greeted the two.

"Good morning." Kirumi replied, her manners impeccable.

"Actually, I didn't really sleep during the night, so this is more like 'good night' to me." Kokichi smirked.

"How sad... Do you want me to tell you a bedtime story?" Kaede asked, playing along with his lie.

"That depends. What sort of bedtime stories can you tell?" Kokichi asked "I will only hear interesting stories."

"I do have quite a few interesting stories." Kaede said proudly "However, I would have to know about your specific tastes if I were to choose an appropriate one." She looked at the third person on the table "Kirumi, could you help me with that?"

Kirumi's face was impossible to see through, as she looked at Kokichi in thought for a moment before speaking "In my professional opinion, I would suggest stories with a big element of weirdness, as well as turnabout situations."

"Oh, you really do know your stuff, Supreme Leader." Kokichi nodded "I really love that sort of thing."

"I live to serve, young Rebel." Kirumi said politely "Though I think Kaede would have been able to tell by herself with a little thought. You're not really that much of an enigma."

"How rude!" Kokichi exclaimed, an impressive number of crocodile tears falling from his eyes "It's like you're saying that I'm boring! This is the thing I really can't stand for, so you have to apologize." His tears suddenly disappeared as he spoke the last sentence.

"Okay, okay boys. You're both handsome." Kaede tried to appease the two, despite being fairly certain that they weren't actually serious about that recent exchange "I have just thought of a good story, and I want both of you to pay attention." Kaede shook her finger while speaking.

She was speaking to the two as if they were children, but that was only because she truly felt it was the best way to reach them. Besides, Kaede had no illusions about the fact that she was just as much of a child as them, but she didn't think that was a bad thing.

After all, children had dreams.

"And the story I'm going to tell you guys is called: 'The Long Crisis of Northwestern Russia'." She spoke with quite a lot of drama.

The two listeners didn't really react in any abnormal way, but Kaede thought this was definitely something that both of them would be interested in, so she started speaking smoothly:

"I was in the region to do... well, a lot of things. I always have a bunch of missions on my schedule. Most of them are bogus, of course, only intended to bring me to the right places, but that's spycraft for you. Nothing is straightforward." She shrugged.

"Of course, when the bomb attacks started, I immediately took that as my priority, but even after a lot of the bombs were intercepted due to the work of several police officers, emergency responders and other random good Samaritans, the actual source of the bombs was impossible to determine."

Kaede did not look at the two, since knowing their reactions wasn't important for what she was trying to do.

"So I thought that the bombings should have been only a smokescreen to hide the true purpose of the attacks. I had a few theories about what would be their true aim, but eventually arrived on the one I thought was most likely: That the Russian government was going to unleash a massive attack on other countries by disguising it as just part of a series of terrorist attacks." Kaede sighed.

"I kept paying attention to any relevant news as I traveled the region playing in my recitals and dealing with the minor missions, and as you two might imagine, I got really worried when I got wind of the disappearance of three mini nuclear devices." She gritted her teeth, just remembering that already made her angry.

"That was truly important, so I decided to use a very unsubtle method to try and obtain results fast: I released a very detailed schedule of my next performances, including dates, times and places, and then I paid careful attention to the reactions these news would garner.

"Eventually, I managed to discover something horrifying: The operation that time was truly massive, and besides the nuclear weapons, there were also tens of thousands of other powerful explosives that would be delivered all over the world by individual cells, most of which with no knowledge of their future suicide missions." Kaede's voice was solemn, reflecting her feelings about that.

"Of course. I wouldn't be able to deal with all of that by myself, but the region was absolutely overflowing with spies, so I decided to split the responsibility. I informed a ton of people about my findings: The NSA, the AOR, D.I.C.E... Everyone I thought could help." She smiled for a moment, before getting solemn once more.

"I don't know which one it was, but one of those organizations had a leak, and information about things ended up in the hands of the Serpent's Hand." Kaede's voice was angry again "I don't think I need to explain what they are. And to make a long story short, they decided to try and trigger as many of those bombs early as possible.

"I knew that had a high chance of happening, but I also knew that things would be even worse if I did anything else, so I made my decision." Kaede sighed again "There were a lot of sacrifices during those weeks. Many people died, but it would have been a lot more without the work of those nameless heroes who gave their own lives to try and minimize the damage...

"But I still have to explain the rest." Kaede shook her head and returned to her story "The nuclear bombs were my priority, so I went on my series of recitals while also gathering information from my friends, trying to pinpoint the place where the missing nuclear devices would resurface before being split up to go on their own missions.

"Of course, since I had spread my schedule, the people responsible were very careful to prevent making any suspicious movements when I was nearby, but in doing so, they ended up exposing themselves via strange movements happening before and after I reached certain cities, which was exactly what I had been expecting." She smiled.

"In the middle of my 'tour', I exchanged places with my doppelganger: Dekae Matsuaka." Kaede giggled a bit "Yeah, I know, but that name was her idea." Kaede shook her head "She's quite good at the piano, so very few people noticed the difference. With that, I was free to secretly follow up on the hints I got, finally managing to track down the warehouse where the nuclear explosives were being kept.

"Thankfully enough, the devices were really portable, so I got a few of my friends to call emergency and pretend there was a shootout at the warehouse. After that, I used the distraction to sneak in and steal the bombs, bringing them to a car and driving off." She looked down "I didn't had a license at the time, but I needed to do it."

Kaede knew that it was strange to feel so bad about that sort of thing after everything else that she had done, but the girl couldn't ignore her own feelings.

"After that, I hid the bombs inside a bunker that no one else knew even existed, and later got someone to smuggle them across the ocean in a submarine to be disposed off in a special place." Kaede finished, and finally looked at the two again.

Their expressions were completely blank, but Kirumi was the first to say something:

"That's the seventh version of this story I have heard." She looked at Kaede.

"You must have a lot of connections to be able to obtain so many of my reports." Kaede said "I actually wrote fifteen, because some times making the truth unclear is best." She did not have any shame about that. And all the reports were true. From a certain point of view, anyway.

"Your report for D.I.C.E was also different from this one." Kokichi said with a smile.

"Well, of course. I couldn't tell you a story you already knew. What would be the fun in that?" Kaede smiled as well. She felt like she had gotten a little closer to Kokichi.

"Ah, I almost forgot to ask you..." Kirumi said to Kaede "Do you have any requests?"

Kaede put a finger to her chin for a second and then spoke:

"How about we three meet together to play later? I'm sure the two of you would be great friends if you got to know each other better, and I also want to make friends with you two."

"I suppose this request is acceptable." Kirumi said.

Kaede smiled and started to talk about her favorite subject: Piano music.

Getting to know new people always made her happy.


	4. Dangerous Motives

Shuuichi talked a little bit more with the two Ultimates before they parted ways. He decided to try and see who else he could find.

So, Shuuichi went back inside the school building and elected to head towards the basement floor, which was where the games room and storage rooms were. He was intending to check those places to see if there was anyone there, however, something unexpected happened on the way.

A door opened in the middle of the corridor Shuuichi was in. And it wasn't just any door, but a heavy steel door he and Kaede had seen before and considered strange, not only due to it being different from any of the other doors nearby, but also because instead of a lock, it had a card reader.

They hadn't managed to open the door at that time, but now Shuuichi saw that, so of course he was surprised. And out from the door stepped Miu.

"Miu? What are you doing here?" The words came out before he could suppress them.

"Eek!" She shouted, surprised "Wha-What are you talking about?! I'm not doing anything!"

"But... How did you get through that door?" Shuuichi asked, wondering if that situation was really happening. He had never met anyone who was so bad at keeping secrets. As someone who became an Ultimate due to his skills in retrieving information from people, it was slightly disconcerting.

"Door? Ah... ah-ha... That was a funny joke, Shuuichi." Miu forced a laugh "I don't see any doors around here." With that she turned around to leave.

Apparently, that was indeed happening. Shuuichi, almost on instinct, yelled in a commanding tone:

"Miu! Come back here!"

"Aaaah!" She screamed and ran right back to stand in front of Shuuichi, with teary eyes.

Shuuichi felt like he had just kicked a puppy. He then spoke with a gentle voice:

"You don't need to be scared. I'm not going to hurt you." He appeased, before noticing strange marks on her hands. They looked like scars from electrical shocks, and they were recent.

"How did you get hurt?" He asked kindly.

She cringed and tried unsuccessfully to hide the marks on her hands, before sighing in defeat and saying "Okay... Alright... I'll tell you everything." She spoke in such a tone of guilt it was like she was about to admit to mass murder.

Reaching her hand inside one pocket, she took out a card key "I found this waiting in my room yesterday, together with a note." She spoke slowly "The note had directions to this place, and said that it was my perk for this game." She cringed once more before continuing "'The Lab of the Mad Scientist'. A place I could use to build things." She sighed heavily "I thought I could make something to help me escape, but..." She stopped.

"The people behind this game wouldn't let you do something like that so easily, right?" Shuuichi understood everything "There must be a mechanism inside that shocks you if you try to make something they don't want."

Miu nodded "Monokuma said that I could make weapons to kill without leaving a trace... Or trackers to follow my targets... But, I don't want to do that. I never wanted to..." She said, her face scrunched up in a sad expression.

"Ah..." At that moment, Shuuichi felt a sense of kinship with Miu "So you never had a choice either. I know how that is."

She looked at him in surprise, and Shuuichi found himself feeling angry and helpless. It wasn't fair that children with talents were exploited by the adults in such a way, without being able to do anything to protect themselves. It wasn't fair that someone like Miu ended up with the nickname of 'The Massacre Inventor', and would probably go down in history while only being known for that.

"What would you like to invent, if you had the chance?" He asked.

Miu looked even more surprised for a moment, but then her expression brightened up and she started to talk.

+0+

Kaede left the table after a while. She had gotten the impression that Kokichi and Kirumi had similar values, despite the fact that their positions in the world were very different. She was glad for it, because she wasn't looking forward to the possibility of the two scheming against each other.

She wanted everyone to work together, but those two were particularly dangerous in her opinion, and if both of them schemed together against the masterminds of the game... Well, things would become a lot easier.

Kaede understood her own limits very well. She wasn't a genius schemer, and making friends with everyone really was the best plan she could think of. But that was also her strength. She had managed to achieve quite a lot by getting to know people and telling them things. If some of those people had good plans of their own, then she didn't need to worry about not knowing what to do.

Still, there were a lot of other students she hadn't gotten to know yet, so Kaede didn't slack off and wandered around looking for other people to talk to. She walked around the first floor of the school building, seeking a suitable target. And she found it in the person of Gonta Gokuhara, who was in the AV Room, apparently looking through the videos for something to watch.

"Hello, Gonta." She greeted him with a smile and a wave.

"Ah, hello Kaede." He answered "I'm looking for bug documentaries to watch. Did you come look for something too?"

"No, I was just looking for someone to talk to. Do you mind?" Kaede responded.

"No, Gonta doesn't mind. We could talk while we watch the video together." He said "Oh, here is one!" He spoke triumphantly.

Gonta put the video to play and both him and Kaede sat side by side in one of the sofas that were available. The documentary Gonta had chosen was about the various species of ants living in the amazonian rain-forest. Kaede wasn't exactly the biggest fan of insects, but she could deal with that.

"Hey Gonta, since you're the Ultimate Entomologist, could you tell me some fun things you know about bugs?" She asked.

Gonta smiled brightly and started to speak. And combining the lecture of the documentary with all the comments made by Gonta, Kaede ended up learning more about insects in a few minutes than she had over the course of her entire life up to that point.

However, Kaede didn't just want to talk about bugs with Gonta, so after a certain point, she asked a question to the boy.

"How are the critical negotiations involving the reptites going?"

"Oh, Kaede knows about the reptites?" Gonta was surprised.

"I'm the Ultimate Spy." She justified "I have to know a lot of secrets to be able to do my job right." There were a few of those secrets that Kaede would have rather not known, but Gonta's wasn't one of those.

"That makes sense." He nodded "The negotiations are going so-so. Reptites have very high standards about waste disposal and resource sharing. Just trying to work out an agreement about laws applying to the ocean is already tough." He smiled "But Gonta has already gotten a lot of things done, like the discussion of the international declaration of rights."

"That's great. I really hope things go well for you." Kaede said.

Gonta was the main link between two civilizations: The humans and the reptites, since he was a human who had been raised by reptites. As such, he had a unique position to help with the connections between the two races, and as it happened, he was also quite good at doing it.

It wasn't hard to see why, either. He was definitely the sort of person you knew you could trust. Kaede was about to ask a bit more when she heard something.

"Hello, Maki." It was Tsumugi's voice.

One of Kaede's most well hidden skills was an extremely acute sense of hearing. It had been cultivated on her piano playing and helped a lot with it, but over the years of espionage missions, Kaede had learned how to use it to gather information by listening in on conversations. And apparently Tsumugi and Maki were talking together in the library, which was just next to the AV room.

Maki and Tsumugi were an unusual pair, so even while keeping up the conversation with Gonta, Kaede paid careful attention to what was being said.

"What do you want?" Was Maki's answer. Just the same as usual.

"I have a proposal for you." Tsumugi spoke in a conspiratory voice.

"Not interested." Maki said.

There was a moment of silence before Tsumugi spoke again "Shadow Selection."

Kaede heard a muffled sound of impact and then Maki's voice again "How do you know about that?" Her voice had a tone of forced calm, as if she was about to lose control.

"I know quite a lot of dark secrets, as is my place to know." Tsumugi's voice still sounded the same "Now that I have your attention, let's get back on the matter of my proposal."

"What is it?" Kaede could pretty much feel the reluctance on Maki's voice.

"How about... The complete destruction of the Clockwork Society?" Tsumugi said, in an amused tone.

"Wha-" It was clear that Maki wasn't expecting that "But-"

"I can do it, you know?" Tsumugi's tone was again conspiratory "Such a thing is not beyond my sphere of ability. I believe this is something you would be interested in?"

There was a moment of silence before Maki spoke again "What would happen to the children?"

"It would be simplicity itself to make sure the responsibility for the orphanage falls upon the hands of a real charity organization." Tsumugi said.

There were a few seconds of silence before she spoke again "Ah. I understand your reluctance. You would rather receive punishment, rather than salvation."

There was another pause "This isn't a problem either." Tsumugi said "There have been many people who have dealt with me... And none of them, not a single one have ever had a good ending." Her conciliatory tone of voice didn't match what she was saying.

"I have to think about this." Maki said, eventually.

"I'll be waiting." Tsumugi spoke.

Kaede heard the sound of Maki leaving the library.

'Tsumugi, what are you trying to do?' Kaede asked herself.

+0+

Shuuichi and Miu were still talking when the screens all around lit up in an announcement:

"Hello, everyone! This is your headmaster speaking. I am pleased to announce that your school handbooks have finally been prepared and are waiting for you in your rooms." Monokuma said "Ah, and together with them, you'll find a special surprise for each of you. Please remember that ignoring your handbooks or the surprise will count as a violation of the rules. So please, go ahead and check them out. Monokuma... Signing out."

And the announcement cut off. The two looked at each other.

"I guess... we have no choice." Shuuichi said.

Miu smiled grimly "Yeah..."

The two them made their way to the dormitory. They saw a few other students that had the same idea, but none of them seemed to be in the mood to talk as they walked towards their destination.

Shuuichi went inside and immediately saw the "handbook". It was a pocket computer with a black and white aesthetic. It was turned off, but came back on after Shuuichi tapped on the screen.

It displayed the name "Shuuichi Saihara" before going to the main screen, which had several icons to select, including "Camera" and "Rules", as well as a title saying "Shuuichi's Monopad". One of those icons was flashing red and was only named "Important". Shuuichi supposed that was the "surprise" Monokuma had been talking about.

Deciding that there was no point putting it off, he pressed the icon, which opened a video.

The first thing it showed was the words "Shuuichi Saihara's Motive Video". Then Monokuma's voice started speaking.

"And now, back by popular demand, it's time for the motive video! And today's theme is a little special... It is all about equality! Everyone will have a video of their own, so now, without further ado..." The video showed an image of Kirumi "Kirumi Toujou."

From then on, the video showed other images of her to illustrate what it was saying, but that was all they were: Illustrations. Because the words were already far too shocking.

"A very talented teenager, Kirumi received a task from the prime-minister to strengthen the country, but upon obtaining the power to be called 'shadow prime-minister', Kirumi found that ruling was another thing that came naturally.

"Using the network of contacts she had built as the Ultimate Maid, Kirumi slowly extended her reach into other countries, attaining an immense amount of influence over the state of global politics. No one knows where her ambition will lead to.

"But you might be asking: What does any of this have to do with you? Wasn't this supposed to be a motive? Well, I was getting to that!

"While Kirumi wasn't yet in power by the time Shuuichi Saihara became a resource of the japanese government, she did make a decision to continue exploiting his talents for the benefit of the country.

"She could have saved you from your plight, but elected not to. Isn't that already enough reason to want to kill her? That is all, except for one thing: You also have a similar position in someone else's motive, so you better hurry.

"Goodbye, and happy killing."

And with that, it was over.

Shuuichi dropped the Monopad back on the bed and sighed deeply. It wasn't like any of that was news to him. He always knew that Kirumi had the power to change his situations but didn't do it. But he also knew that it wasn't a simple situation. He was already a person of interest, who knew quite a lot of dangerous information.

Shuuichi could not have a normal life, as even if the government let him be, he would always have to worry about the possibility of being kidnapped by some other organization due to his knowledge. And receiving protection from the government would end up not being much different from the way things already were.

Still, the video had indeed left him shaken, as most of the time Shuuichi avoided even thinking about that. And the fact that he knew that one of the other students had received a video about him only caused Shuuichi to worry more.

In fact, he actually lost track of time, and got startled by a knock on his door. Shuuichi got up and went to answer. It was Kaede, who was looking at him with a grave expression.

He waved her in almost without thinking.

"Looks like they are not going to make this easy for us." Was Kaede's first comment upon entering.

"Yeah." Shuuichi agreed "Looks like everyone got a target painted on their backs. My video was about Kirumi."

"Mine was about Tenko." Kaede frowned "But it mostly made me feel sad for her."

"Ah, and did you check the functions of the Monopad?" He asked.

"Not yet. I just took a peek at the school rules, but I decided that it would be better if we looked over them together." Kaede said.

"Right." Shuuichi said.

Then he turned the Monopad back on and pressed the icon of the rules.

+0+

Rantaro sighed as he looked at his Monopad.

"So, this is my perk for this game. The Survivor's Log." He said to himself.

On the previous night, when he got inside his room, Rantaro had found a note saying that he would receive a perk to help play the game, but there was no more information about it.

And now, after he got his Monopad, Rantaro had seen that one of the icons was titled "Survivor's Perk". He decided to take a look at it after seeing the "surprise", Monokuma had mentioned.

It turned out to be a "motive video", which gave him a reason to kill Ryoma Hoshi. And it was very straightforward: If he killed Ryoma, four of his sisters would be freed. It was a whole one third of them, so it was a tempting offer.

And Rantaro had some ideas on why he had been put against Ryoma specifically. He had actually met the guy before, during the Prison Game, and Rantaro understood that quite a lot of people would like it if a nuisance like him disappeared.

But even so, Rantaro had no intention of killing anyone. He wanted to help his sisters, but he knew that they would be sad if he became a bad guy in order to do that. And that was pretty much the reason why, even after years of death games, Rantaro still kept his bottom line, because he wanted to be a good brother.

As such, Rantaro only kept in mind the information that each one of the other students would have a motive of their own, probably including one that targeted him. Rantaro had not survived for so long by ignoring potentially useful information.

After all that, he finally took a look at his "perk", which took him a bit of time to understand.

The survivor's log was a list of every single room that the students could access, and beneath each room name was a list of names of students together with times.

That included Rantaro's own name, and by comparing the list with his memory, he started to understand what it was all about: It was a log of the first time each student entered each room on each day.

It was just about the first time, because none of the lists contained copies of the same name, even though there had been a lot of people who entered and left the same room multiple times, Rantaro himself included.

All in all, it wasn't anything flashy, but he understood that it would probably be a very useful resource whenever a class trial actually happened (and it would happen, of that he had no doubt).

Rantaro left his room, intending on testing some of the special functions of the Monopad, but his plans were derailed by a voice saying his name.

"Rantaro." It was Maki.

He was surprised, but recovered quickly and spoke:

"Do you need something, Maki?"

"I want to talk." She said.


	5. Academy Rules

Rantaro accepted, and the two went to a relatively secluded location (around a few trees behind the dormitory) to have that talk.

When they got there, he gave her a meaningful look and waited for her to start.

"Do you know about me?" Was what she eventually ended up saying "Do you know what my title means?"

Rantaro shook his head "I never heard about you before getting here. And I know what indoctrinate means, but I wouldn't be willing to guess on the specifics of your talent."

Maki nodded, and then spoke "I grew up at an orphanage. It wasn't exactly the best place in the world, but it was better than a lot of the alternatives.." She shook her head "But then one day, me and a few other children of the orphanage were taken to a 'camp'.

"And we weren't the only ones. Children from orphanages all around Japan were placed there. It was a major operation ran by an organization known as the Clockwork Society." Maki shook her head "And we had been chosen as worthy of grooming to become 'agents' of that organization."

"I imagine it wasn't a choice." Rantaro said.

Maki nodded "A few of us tried to refuse and ended up punished, but going along with it was barely any better. 'Grooming' basically boiled down to repetitive heavy tasks, all with the intent of breaking our mindsets down and turning us into loyal slaves." Her eyes became heavy and distant "I understood what was happening, and I tried to get the others to fight against the conditioning..." She trailed off.

"And it didn't end well." Rantaro deduced.

"Perhaps it should be said that it went too well." Maki said, clenching her fists "The higher-ups saw that their methods weren't working as they should, and they gave out several punishments and eventually managed to discover that I was the source of the disturbance..." She trailed off again.

This time Rantaro simply waited for Maki to continue.

"I thought I would be punished, maybe even killed..." She eventually said "But instead, they were interested in my skills in manipulation, so they made me an offer..." She took a deep breath "They would let the other children from my orphanage go back, and wouldn't take any more from there either, but in return, I had to help with the Shadow Selection."

"That name doesn't sound good." Rantaro commented, mostly just to fill in the silence.

"Shadow Selection is a special type of indoctrination." Maki explained "It is based upon giving each of the children a role and warping them until that role is all that they are, or care about. Until they would rather die instead of failing or straying from that purpose.

"Those purposes can be anything. Some will be made into assassins, some into spies, some into builders of all kinds... But in the end, the result is always the same: Absolutely loyal subjects who can be controlled like chess pieces." Her disgust became more and more evident as she talked "And that was my function, that's what I did."

"I understand." Rantaro said "But now, what was it that you wanted to talk to me about?"

Maki sighed again "The truth is... The motive I received was about you."

Rantaro did not react too much to those words, only waiting for Maki to make her point.

"I just wanted to know.. How do you keep going, even after everything that has happened? Even though your hopes were crushed so many times..." She asked.

Rantaro knew what she was talking about. The lords seemed to delight in keeping his sisters just out of reach, with every apparent opportunity to get them back being just a ruse, sometimes asking him to sacrifice one in order to free another, sometimes making literally impossible conditions and sometimes other things.

He wondered what exactly had been in her motive video, considering that she apparently knew about that. Still, Rantaro decided that he should give her a real answer regardless.

"It's just... My decision. The thing I'm fighting for. If I gave up, everything I did would have been meaningless." He said, before fixing Maki with a look "But I have a question of my own."

"... What is it?" Maki said.

"What brought this on?" Rantaro asked "Why did you suddenly decide to ask me that?"

Maki took another deep breath "I received a proposal from Tsumugi." A pause "A proposal that made me think about how I've lived my life up to this point."

"Tsumugi, huh..." Rantaro thought about the girl. He could feel in an almost instinctual manner that she was extremely dangerous, and that seemed to be correct.

"I still don't know how I'm going to respond to her proposal." Maki said "But I think your words helped. I should consider what I want to fight for, and what decision I want to make."

Rantaro nodded "I'm glad that I was able to help."

+0+

Kaede and Shuuichi both fell silent as they read over the rules. Their expressions changed quite a few times in the process, but the two seemed to have tacitly agreed to look over the entire thing before discussing it.

There weren't all that many rules in the end, and Shuuichi was the first to finish reading them. He looked over at Kaede, and only had to wait a few seconds for her to also finish.

After that, she looked at him and gestured with her head for him to speak first, so Shuuichi did:

"The one that immediately attracts my attention is rule number 5."

"A successful blackened can chose to give up their freedom, allowing the voted to be executed while the rest of the spotless can live on and continue the killing game." Kaede recited "That attracted my attention too."

"I can only think of a few reasons for why such a rule would be in place, and none of them are good." Shuuichi said "The most concerning is the possibility of an insider, working for the people of the game, killing someone and framing someone else if things seem to be at a standstill. And perhaps doing other things..." He trailed off.

Kaede sighed "I can see that. It certainly seems like the kind of thing those people would do." A pause "And what about rule number 8?" She asked.

Shuuichi grimaced "That's another dangerous one: If there's more than one blackened, only one of them needs to be voted for the spotless to survive, and the other(s) are considered to be spotless henceforth. At first it just seems like a rule put in place to discourage multiple murders, but..."

"But if two people kill during the same section, only one of them will end up being punished, which would cause strain on the relationships of the others as they would have to live with a murderer." Kaede completed the thought "This game really was designed with all intent to get us to murder each other, which I suppose it's no surprise." She sighed.

"Rule number 3, 'exploring the school grounds is allowed with very few restrictions', seems a little strange." Shuuichi said "Do they want to give us false hope that we could escape if we just found the right way?"

"Maybe they encourage exploration to have people going around by themselves, setting up opportunities for murder." Kaede wondered aloud "But I don't think that's the only thing. There should be some hidden aspects to that..."

Both of them fell silent, waiting to see if the other was going to bring up anything else, and when it became clear that neither of them had anything else to bring up, Kaede decided to change the subject:

"I think I'm going to talk with Kokichi and Kirumi and see if they have any other ideas about the hidden meanings of the rules. Those two are pretty smart." Kaede said.

"I don't see any reason why not, nor do I see a reason why we shouldn't continue with our previous plan as well." Shuuichi said.

+0+

The next two targets they choose to seek out in order to talk were Tenko and Himiko, who were once again eating together at the dining hall, this time with no one else. The taller girl was looking around and smiled when she saw Kaede approaching.

The pianist whispered to Shuuichi "I'll get Tenko, you get Himiko."

Then she stopped next to the table and spoke:

"Tenko, I want to speak to you in private, could you follow me?"

Shuuichi could barely believe how Kaede was able to say those kinds of things so easily. However, it worked, and Tenko was eager to follow Kaede out of the dining hall.

Himiko looked at her leaving, her face expressionless as usual, but Shuuichi could tell that she was apparently feeling somewhat annoyed (he wasn't the Ultimate Interrogator for nothing, after all). Still, the boy sat down on her table and greeted her:

"Hello, Himiko."

"Hello, Shuuichi." She answered "What is this all about?"

"Kaede and I decided to try and make friends with everyone else." He took a page out of Kaede's book and decided that honesty was the best policy.

"Ah, I understand." Himiko nodded "That means you want to hear about my glorious deeds as Kaito Magi, right?"

Shuuichi looked at the small girl. Even though Ultimate Phantom Thief seemed to be her actual title, he still found it difficult to see her as that amazingly famous figure. So he answered her question with:

"Actually, I was more interested in how you ended up becoming a Phantom Thief in the first place." He said lightly "Usually you hear about Phantom Thieves inheriting their titles, but I don't think that's the case with you."

"That's right." Himiko confirmed "So you want to hear about my origin... That is also a great story."

Shuuichi nodded and waited for her to talk.

"My parents were both very famous authors." She started "They died when I was very small, so I don't really remember much about them, but they left behind quite a lot of money, as well as people who could manage things while I grew up.

"Yeah. My charm might have already tipped you off, but I was actually raised as a young lady. I grew up having everything I could want... And I was so bored." As she spoke those words, Shuuichi could actually hear a note of firmness in her voice. It seemed like she truly felt quite strongly about it.

"I never found any fun or happiness in anything I did, and I was just letting life pass, without being able to truly live." Shuuichi found that Himiko was actually pretty skilled at telling stories, except for her unchanging tone "But one day, everything changed. I had finally reached 'charity' on my list of activities to try, and when I gave that check to the doctor lady, she was smiling so much...

"I could feel how happy that had made her, and that made me happy as well, so I decided to dedicate myself to charity work." Himiko continued, her voice taking on a slight warm tone "And things went like that for a while, I went to events, I did charity and I enjoyed seeing the smiles on other people's faces.

"Then, one day something else major happened." Himiko kept going "I was doing a skydiving event as part of a charity project. It was a bunch of major donors parachuting together, but when it came time to open my parachute, it didn't work, and neither did the spare.

"The instructor who was diving together with us acted immediately. He cut himself free of his own parachute and dove towards me, forcing himself to get closer and closer despite the fact that we were almost at the ground.

"It was just by a little bit, but he managed to grab my hand and bring me towards him before opening his spare parachute. It was so close he had to roll out once we hit the ground, but we managed to get through that without any major injuries."

At that point, Himiko's eyes seemed to shine, and her voice took on an almost eager tone "I had almost died, and it was the most fun I'd ever had. It was different from the simple happiness of charity. It was a thrill, an emotion that was simply amazing." She smiled.

'Ah... So she was that kind of person.' Shuuichi thought, still wondering when thieving was going to enter the story.

"So my future activities seemed to be set in stone. I would do both charity and the most extreme sports, with the highest chance of death, such as underwater cave diving as well as climbing the most dangerous mountains. I even did a little bit of it, but then something happened." She stopped dramatically.

"What?" Shuuichi asked, because she was clearly fishing for it.

"I ran out of money." Himiko answered, her voice somehow even flatter than usual "Surprisingly enough, even big inheritances eventually run out, specially with the amount of donations I kept making." She shook her head "The managers still had a few basic investments, so I wasn't completely destitute, but there was no way I could keep doing the things I loved. I was only eleven at the time.

"I kept thinking of ways to try and overcome the situation. And one day, I watched a movie about a Phantom Thief who always stole with pomp and flair to put smiles on the faces of the people watching. I was enlightened by that, so I spend a bit of time preparing and then went on my first big heist.

"I got quite a lot of diamonds, and managed to launder the money back into me. I made up a whole deal about a wealthy patron that had taken an interest in charity work and wanted me to represent him, since he preferred to remain anonymous. After that I just kept doing bigger and bigger heists until I got to where I am now." She finished suddenly.

Shuuichi felt like he was about to get a headache. He had seen how ridiculous the other ultimates were in his conversation with Rantaro and Angie, but Himiko had managed to surprise him even so. There were so many things he wanted to retort on, Shuuichi had trouble focusing, but eventually he settled on:

"What do you mean 'spent a bit of time preparing'? Could you please give me a little more detail than that? And how did you go directly from watching a movie to stealing diamonds? I feel like a few things were left out!" He surprised himself with how blunt he was being.

"I had to learn magic, of course. I'm a magical phantom thief, after all." Himiko said.

'Of course...' Shuuichi thought "And where did you lean magic, then?"

"That's a secret." Himiko said, putting a finger to her lips.

Shuuichi sighed. He realized that it would be impossible to get any specific information out of Himiko, unless he was willing to do an actual Interrogation... and that would definitely destroy any chance of them being friends.

While trying to think of something else to talk about, Shuuichi remembered what had happened when they had come, and decided to take the plunge.

"Well... I don't know if this is too personal to ask... But what is the deal with you and Tenko?" Indeed. He had no idea why he felt comfortable enough to ask something like that of Himiko, but he apparently did.

Upon hearing that question, Himiko fell silent for a moment, but Shuuichi could tell that she wasn't offended, but just gathering her thoughts.

"It's just..." She started "She's so free and open with her emotions... And that just... Attracts me, I guess..."

Shuuichi nodded in understanding. Despite how weird she was, he actually felt like he had truly gotten to know Himiko as a friend.

That was good.

+0+

"... So, I convinced a bunch of friends and we set up a big project, sending nuts to the financial department, we spread the word in social media, and when the day came, they were overwhelmed with nuts, like... People sent them so many nuts, they would not fit in the building." Kaede talked to Tenko about one of her more lighthearted missions, where not only did silly things like that occur, but it also ended up being a simple case of mistaken identity, and everyone involved ended up well.

"I can't believe that's how you decided to get inside..." Tenko said, struggling to hold in her laughter.

Kaede smiled at the other girl. She knew that Tenko was playing up her reactions as a form of flirting, but she honestly didn't mind, since the other girl kept things respectful.

The two had talked mostly about light subjects, and Kaede didn't bring up Tenko's talent. She could tell that the girl was very self-conscious and secretive about it, despite the fact that it had been announced for all of them to hear, and considering how she had become an assassin, it truly made sense that it was like that.

However, Kaede wouldn't get anywhere by just avoiding difficult conversation topics, so when the story was over, she asked an important question in a rather casual manner:

"So, do you have any plans for dealing with this situation?"

Tenko looked surprised for a moment, but then answered just as casually:

"Ah, I'm just waiting for master to send me instructions on what to do."

Kaede's eyes narrowed in suspicion "Really? Are you sure he will be able to send instructions even into such a place?"

"Positive." Tenko didn't even hesitate "He has always managed to give me instructions, no matter where I was."

"And then you think you will be able to escape by following the instructions?" Kaede asked.

"I don't know. It's just that following his instructions is the right thing to do, so I don't need to worry about not knowing what I should do." Tenko spoke as if it was just a fact of life.

Kaede didn't know if Tenko was lying or telling the truth with that. However, she thought that Tenko really was the obedient type that wouldn't even question their commands.

Thinking about the life she had lead up to that point, Kaede felt sad, and hoped that Tenko would be able to free herself from such a thing. Someone like her definitely didn't deserve to be forced to kill so many people.

"As for me..." Kaede spoke, while thinking about all of that "My only plan for now is to make friends with everyone. I want to defeat the managers of this game, but I can't do it on my own. So I hope that everyone here can get along."

"I'll definitely be your friend, Kaede!" Tenko declared "But... I don't think I can get along with everyone. There's quite a lot of degenerate males here, and I know that they are just waiting to harm the girls!"

"I don't really mind making friends with degenerates myself." Kaede said, not bothering to try and change Tenko's mind "For me, making friends is always a good thing, no matter what kind of person they are."

And she really meant it. She would try and strike up a friendship with anyone. Even if Tenko had killed all those people solely due to her own will, Kaede would still make friends with her. She had become friends with much worse people.

Just because they were friends, didn't mean she would allow them to do bad things. Kaede would go against them, for their own good.

After all, wasn't that the least a friend could do?


	6. Main Game

"I think I'm going to look for Keebo." Shuuichi said, once he and Kaede met again.

Kaede smiled at him before nodding firmly "Right. Tell me how that goes, later. I'm gonna see what I can get out of Kokichi and Kirumi."

The two then split up, Kaede going to the library where she suspected Kirumi was, while Shuuichi started wandering around in search of the robot.

+0+

Kaede's expectations became reality when she reached her destination. Kirumi was there in the library, accompanied by Gonta. The two of them were sitting on close chairs, alternating between looking at their books and talking to each other.

She didn't want to break the peaceful atmosphere, so Kaede simply walked near them, giving a silent wave once they noticed her presence and sitting on a chair only a little bit away. The two paused their discussion to greet her back.

"Hello, Kaede. How is it going?" Gonta asked.

"Do you need something, Kaede?" Kirumi asked.

Kaede put her hands together "Actually, I did have something to ask Kirumi, but now I'm curious, could you tell me about what you were talking about?" She asked.

"Ah, Kirumi's been helping Gonta. Talking about possible diplomatic measures." Gonta said.

"Indeed. I believe that Gonta's work can be used as a pillar to help in improving the world." Kirumi confirmed.

Kaede nodded "That makes sense. You two have a lot in common in this aspect." She paused for a moment "Any good news so far?"

Kirumi smiled slightly before talking "It is difficult to predict the results of any diplomatic initiative, but we have already started planning how to take advantage of the possible reactions in order to push the agenda forward." She looked at the boy "Gonta understands very well the idea of slow development, so that makes things easier."

Kaede smiled at her "That's nice."

Her words had a lot more meaning than they seemed. Kaede had seen the way Kirumi was looking at Gonta. It was a gaze filled with tenderness, but not the tenderness of a mother, but that of a general, one who valued her troops but understood the necessity of sending them somewhere they might not return from.

Someone who saw others both as people and as tools to be used, without any dissonance. A perfect leader for an imperfect world. Kaede wondered how Kirumi saw her.

"So, about my question..." She started.

"Yes?" Kirumi replied.

"Me and Shuuichi looked over the rules of the game, and we found a few concerning things, but neither of us is an expert at that kind of thing, so I would like to know if there are any hidden aspects that would be good to know." Kaede asked.

Kirumi looked deeply at Kaede for a few moments before nodding and starting to speak:

"Gonta, could you tell her about your Ambassador perk?" She asked Gonta.

He looked surprised, but opened his mouth to speak even so:

"Gonta's Ultimate Ambassador perk is strange. It says that Gonta can ignore any non-trial related rules at his discretion." Was the explanation she gave.

Kaede's eyebrows went up.

"Do you remember rule number 3?" Kirumi asked "Gonta's particular perk means that he is capable of entering into places the rest of us can't go to. I believe there are a few more perks that deal with how the game itself works, so my advice would be to not rely too much on the rules as written."

Kaede nodded, thoughtful. It wasn't just because of the information, but because she understood why Kirumi was telling her that: It was a test. Kirumi would use her reaction to being given that information in order to gauge Kaede's position as a positive or negative factor towards her plans.

"Thank you for the advice, we will take that into consideration." Kaede said.

Regardless of Kirumi's thoughts, Kaede wouldn't do anything different anyway. Trying to manipulate people who excelled in manipulation was a fool's errand. Kaede knew her limits, and also knew her strong points. Being open and honest was unusual for a spy, but they were effective for her... Although lies still had their place.

"Have you asked anyone else about that?" Kirumi questioned.

"Not yet, but I'm going to see what's Kokichi's opinion about this." Kaede answered.

"That should be an interesting conversation." Kirumi's smiled adopted a touch of amusement.

"I sure hope so." Kaede said, and stood up to leave the library.

She had lots of things to think about.

+0+

It didn't take long for Shuuichi to find Keebo. He was sitting on one of the outside benches. And he wasn't alone, but accompanied by Miu. The two seemed to be having a serious conversation, so Shuuichi was reluctant to try and interrupt.

He ended up not needing to do so. Miu looked up to see him, and after a moment of hesitation, gestured to Shuuichi to approach them. Keebo looked at him with interest.

"Hello, Miu. Hello, Keebo. How are you two doing?" He asked, unwilling to directly ask why Miu had called him.

"Hello, Shuuichi. Me and Miu were just sharing our experiences." Keebo said, showing himself to be the most personable of the three "We have quite a lot in common, as it happens."

"I can see why that would be the case." Shuuichi noted.

"I mentioned you to him." Miu blurted out, showing herself to be the most awkward of the trio.

"She said you understood the feeling of being used." Keebo explained, somber.

"Yes." Shuuichi was already getting a clear picture of the situation.

"And my 'perk' is just salt in the wound." Keebo muttered.

Miu looked surprised. Shuuichi asked:

"Your perk?"

Keebo looked like he hadn't quite meant to say that, but after a few moments of hesitation, he explained himself.

"The perk of the Ultimate Weapon is made so I can be used as a murder tool by someone else." He shook his head "And if they get away with it, we will be able to leave together." His words were filled with a palpable sense of derision.

"I see." Was Shuuichi's only response.

He noticed that Keebo hadn't gotten into any specifics, but that was perfectly understandable.

"Did you have any business with us?" Miu asked, adopting a harsh tone almost automatically.

Keebo gave her a look, but he seemed to understand how that was simply a quirk of hers.

"I'm still trying to get to know everyone who is trapped here." He explained "Kaede said that the only way we would be able to get through this situation should be by working together. And since we have so many different people here, we may be able to find something they didn't expect."

He didn't need to elaborate on who 'they' were.

"Right..." Keebo nodded in understanding.

"Also, Kaede was going to ask some people if they had any insights about the rules of the game that we received." Shuuichi remembered "Do the two of you have any ideas of possible traps in them?"

Both Miu and Keebo had their own opinions about the rules, though it was mostly similar to the thoughts Kaede and Shuuichi had shared. Except for one thing.

"Rule number 13. The body discovery announcement will sound after at least three people discover the body, not counting the killer or accomplices." Keebo recited.

"What's the problem with that?" Shuuichi asked, in full seriousness.

Keebo looked back at him and spent a few moments thinking about how to phrase his thoughts.

"That might seen like something that would help make deductions, and it actually might in some situations. However, an accomplice is defined in rule number seven as 'someone who aids in the blackened's plot.' And there is no 'knowingly' in the middle of that sentence. You could be set up to aid the plot in some way and become an accomplice without even realizing."

Shuuichi's mind went on overdrive as he tried to think through the implications of that fact "In that case, wouldn't Monokuma be the one to judge whether someone is an accomplice or not? And wouldn't that mean he could interpret the rules in such a way to make things hardest to figure out?"

"Yes. That's what I thought." Keebo confirmed.

+0+

Meanwhile, Kaede had managed to find Kokichi. At the time he was walking around the outside section of the school, apparently exploring. And different from Kirumi, he was by himself, so she had no qualms approaching and greeting him.

"Hello, Kokichi." She said.

"Hello to you too, Kaede. How is life going? Lie a lot recently?" He asked.

"Nah. I prefer to tell lies more sparingly." Kaede shook her head in amusement.

"That's not any fun, but to each his own, I guess." Kokichi shrugged "So what brings you to me? Do you have any special reports?"

"I wanted to ask if you have any insights about the hidden meanings of the rules of the game." Kaede said.

Kokichi looked at her and then started blatantly pretending to think. Kaede simply looked at him like she had all time in the world. The clash of will lasted only a few seconds.

"Meh, I guess there's no issue with telling you a few things." Kokichi declared.

"Oh, thank you very much for your kindness!" Kaede clapped her hands together and spoke with exaggerated cheer.

Kokichi didn't get thrown off by it "I think one important thing to note is rule number 14."

"If a body goes undiscovered for 48 hours, a special announcement will be played to direct the spotless to the body. The same announcement will also play if a victim is killed during Investigation Time and their body isn't discovered before Investigation Time ends." Kaede recalled.

"This rule prevents the possibility of a murder not being investigated." Kokichi explained "But that isn't the only thing. The most important part of the rule is what it doesn't say: It only mentions that they will be 'directed' to the body, but simply being able to hide it for so long would make it a lot more difficult to determine the culprit. And how would things be settled if the culprit happened to dispose of the body? The rule doesn't mention it, but I imagine Monokuma would have a way to deal with it, since it's not like this possibility is out of the question, so the creators of the game must have thought of it as well."

Kaede nodded in understanding. It had been the right decision to ask around, as she definitely wouldn't have been able to think through things to this extent, or at least, not that fast.

"What kinds of secret methods do you think they would use?" She asked.

"That's the question, isn't it?" Kokichi shrugged "The easiest way would be to use some kind of corpse mockup, but how far would they go with it? If they create a realistic body, that in itself would tell us something about their capabilities."

"Hmm..." Kaede closed her eyes in thought. That was something she had to consider. She kept talking with Kokichi for a bit more, just for fun.

+0+

And while that was going on, Rantaro found himself in the middle of a very unusual conversation.

He was sitting down next to the pool in the gym, and the person he was talking to was Kaito Momota, Ultimate Astronaut/Cheater.

"What do you think the creators of this game expect out of this?" Was one of the questions Kaito asked.

Rantaro had to think for quite a few moments before replying:

"People who create those kinds of death games are the type who became numb to normal forms of enjoyment. They are always rich folks who never had to worry about anything in life, and so never had a goal." He declared "As such, their desires only grow. Maybe this sort of game started with normal people, before using Ultimates, and now they specifically chose Ultimates with dangerous talents." Rantaro shook his head "They get a thrill of power in being able to have control over their victims, and having 'powerful' victims feeds into that."

"But since they are seeking thrill, wouldn't that also mean putting themselves in some sort of danger?" Kaito asked.

Rantaro was about to answer, but the sound of a step made him turn around to see Shuuichi, who had just gone into the gym.

Kaito noticed his movement and looked as well, being surprised to see Shuuichi, since he hadn't heard anything. Rantaro, however, was very sensitive to the environment, owing to years of death games, so he wouldn't be surprised so easily.

After a moment of confusion, Kaito asked Rantaro:

"Hey, do you mind if Shuuichi joins this conversation?"

Rantaro couldn't find any reason to decline that, and he said so. Soon Shuuichi had joined their little circle and been filled in on the details, so it was time for Rantaro to answer.

"The thing about danger and thrill, is that they are privileged people, and such people are terrified of the very idea of losing their privilege, of losing anything, so it is difficult for them to put themselves into actual danger.

"Some of them do so, and a few times they actually end up dying because of it, but many of the more successful ones simply find other ways to get their thrills, frequently by betting on the outcomes of the games.

"Sometimes, even when they risk themselves directly, the risk is a mere illusion to fool both themselves and the competitors. They always have plenty of backups and have always stacked the odds in their favor as much as possible, even to the point where the contestants don't even have a path of survival." He explained.

"But you still survived anyway, right?" Kaito asked with an eager smile.

"Yes." Rantaro played along "No matter how much they plan, it is impossible to account for everything, so I could make my own path to survival."

"That's exactly what I wanted to talk about." Kaito stated "Just like those games, here we don't have any way out that is acceptable, so we must go outside the rules and break the game."

Rantaro stared at him, wondering where Kaito was planning on going with that.

"What do you think is the type of the guys who made this game?" He asked "Are they the type to put themselves in 'danger' in a way that we can exploit?"

Rantaro shook his head "No, I don't think so. We don't even know their names or faces, and everything here is so impersonal. They are probably just watching everything from the safety of their own homes."

Contrary to expectations, Kaito actually smiled broadly at the response "We can also use that."

"What do you mean?" Shuuichi asked, getting into the conversation.

"If they are so far away, that means it should be more difficult for them to exert direct control over the proceedings." Kaito pointed out "Monokuma is an AI, and if we can figure out his rules and limitations, we should already be halfway to breaking the game."

"But doing that isn't as easy as you make it sound." Rantaro said, but he was actually very interested in Kaito's ideas.

"Yeah, but it is still a lot better than simply following their script." Kaito said "With some effort, we will be able to get to the bottom of things and find our way out. Every system has its flaws and exploitable places, and if we figure them out, there will be nothing that can stop us."

"Is this the wisdom of the Ultimate Cheater?" Rantaro asked.

"Sure." Kaito said, without any shame "To be able to become an astronaut, I had to cheat the system. I faked documents, impersonated people, invaded restricted places... There were many security measures to prevent what I did, but every system has its flaws, and I targeted them."

"What kind of flaws could we exploit?" Shuuichi asked.

Then the trio started talking about possible loopholes in the rules (Shuuichi said Kaede was looking into it), what resources they could use (mostly the freedom they had been afforded, which was the main 'risk' the game makers were taking) and the sorts of AI quirks they could exploit (Kaito promised to watch Monokuma and tell them anything he figured out.)

At the same time, Rantaro was also studying the two figures. Kaito looked like the kind of person who was set in their ways and would keep going with what they decided regardless of the consequences. He had seen a few like him in death games, and they were always strong contestants.

On the other hand, Shuuichi was the type who was easily influenced. One could manipulate those types of people, but it was actually a bad idea to rely on that. That ease of influence meant they were unpredictable, and could change their minds seemingly on a whim. In death games, those types usually died early, but if they survived until late in the game, they became very difficult to handle.

Both of them could be good allies, and Rantaro would be happy if that happened, but he was not going to completely rely on them. That would be foolish.

+0+

After her conversation with Kokichi, Kaede went back inside the school, and decided to head into the games room. And inside was someone she had been wanting to talk to for a while.

It was Tsumugi Shirogane, and she was alone.

Kaede approached her with calm steps, resolving herself to make a new friend at all costs.

Tsumugi looked up from the billiards table and saw her approach.

"Oh Kaede, what brings you here to me?" She asked in a warm and pleasant tone of voice, almost like an old lover.

"Friendship!" Was Kaede's response "We already talked a bit, but I really wanted to get to know you better."

"Are you sure?" Tsumugi's tone had changed, and it was now quietly threatening "People who become my friends don't tend to last long, you know?"

"Positive!" Kaede nodded firmly "I'm tough, and even if I do die, it would be better than not even trying to make friends."

She was being a lot more aggressive than she usually was when making friends, but Kaede had already decided to go all out, after overhearing that particular conversation.

"Hmm. But are you sure that's alright?" Tsumugi asked, this time in a mocking tone "Your friends will be really sad if you die."

Kaede shrugged "And I'll be sad if they die, but that doesn't mean I would want them to forget about everything else and just keep themselves alive. They wouldn't be happy like that, and that's no way to live." She looked Tsumugi right in the eyes and continued "If I followed that logic, then wouldn't it be better to make no friends at all and avoid being hurt?" This time, it was Kaede's voice that turned mocking, showing exactly what she thought about that.

"So instead you just accepted the hurt." Tsumugi spoke with a monotone voice "I understand what you are now." She pointed her finger at Kaede "You are a contradiction."

That actually managed to surprise Kaede, and she took a step back, two opposite feelings flooding her heart.

On the one hand, she was scared of how Tsumugi seemed to have seen through her so easily. But on the other hand, she felt joy on realizing that Tsumugi really understood her, which was something that didn't come easy.

Kaede was used to feeling contradictory emotions, however, and as it usually happened, the positive one won out, and Kaede let her face change into a broad smile.

"As expected." Tsumugi said in a clinical voice, nodding and looking at Kaede like a game of chess.

"But anyway..." Kaede changed the subject, her mood still light "You didn't really respond to my proposal. Let's be friends!"

Tsumugi reached with a hand to cup Kaede's cheek, looking at the other girl with eyes full of care "If you're alright with someone like me, I suppose I have no reason to refuse. Just don't be too reckless, okay?"

"I'll see what I can do." Kaede answered, one-upping Tsumugi's gesture by stepping forward and wrapping her up in a hug.

It lasted for a few moments, and then Tsumugi carefully teased herself out of the hug, glared angrily at Kaede and ran out of the room at full speed.

Kaede sighed heavily, that had been intense.

Tsumugi really deserved the title of Ultimate Mastermind. With that ability to see through people, and those acting skills... She could manipulate people so easily.

And Kaede knew she wasn't an exception to that. She counted on it, even. Trying to avoid being manipulated as a fool's errand even in the best circumstances, since skillful manipulators could use even that to their advantage. And Tsumugi was a step above even that.

And she was manipulating Kaede. Even doing those drastic mood shifts was manipulating her simply by calling attention to Tsumugi's acting skills, exposing herself on purpose to get the reaction she wanted.

Kaede knew she didn't have the capacity to look at Tsumugi's behavior and separate the truths from the lies. That wasn't her area of skill, but that didn't mean she was helpless regarding what the other girl wanted.

That was the reason why Kaede had went so far and so recklessly with her attempt at befriending Tsumugi. Kaede was deliberately exposing herself to manipulation. With that, she would be able to understand Tsumugi's true aims.

Because whatever she felt inclined to do would be what Tsumugi wanted her to do.

So Kaede started thinking, and looking through her feelings. It felt like she had to be prepared for something, like there was something she needed to do. It was similar to how she was feeling before, since she wanted to defeat the managers of the game, but this time there was a sense of immediacy to it.

Putting everything together, Kaede came to a worrying conclusion. Tsumugi was planning to do something soon, a big something, and she wanted Kaede to be ready for it for some reason.

It seemed like things weren't going to stay quiet for long.


	7. Ultimate Plots

After her conversation with Tsumugi, Kaede met back up with Shuuichi. The two of them went to the dining room and Kaede prepared a quick lunch, which they ate as they talked about what they had experienced during their later explorations. Shuuichi shared Kaede's unease in regards to Tsumugi's intentions, and Kaede was very enthusiastic towards Kaito's plans of figuring out a way to break the game.

Time passed quickly while they were talking, and soon Monokuma was announcing the beginning of night time. The two went back to their rooms, since that had been a very busy day and they were tired.

+0+

Rantaro woke up early, as had become his custom over the last few years. Sitting up on the bed, he went over the events of the previous day, trying to figure out what the other people were trying to do, as well as head off any possible threats to his life.

The first day had been mostly uneventful, as every participant of the killing game was trying to adjust themselves to the new situation before making any plans, but things had changed quickly in the second day.

Kaede and Shuuichi had been running about, making connections with many of the other contestants without rest. It was a slightly reckless thing to do, but otherwise Rantaro felt like it was a good way to act during the initial stages of the game.

Kokichi and Tsumugi had also worked hard, but in a more circumspect way. Both of them had talked to quite a few people, and had also moved around everywhere, according to his Log. They would need to be watched closely.

Both Maki and Ryoma didn't seem to have any plans, though the former should have changed her tune after the meeting with Tsumugi, considering what they had talked about. Kirumi on the other hand, looked to be the type that observed the situation and collected information for a while before acting.

Tenko, Angie and Himiko were difficult to pin down. They did not seem to be as directionless as Maki and Ryoma, however, they also didn't seem to be intent on doing anything specific. Korekiyo was the type who was more interested in watching everyone else than actually doing anything himself. Rantaro had seen that type a lot of times, as he was almost certain that was the case.

Kaito was doing something, possibly related to that whole "looking for flaws in the system" thing he had mentioned, but Rantaro was honestly baffled as to what exactly that entailed. Kaito's actions seemed pretty random and meaningless to him.

Keebo and Miu were spending a lot of time together, and Rantaro made a note to pay special attention to those two. Finally, there was Gonta, who seemed to be simply doing whatever Kirumi wanted him to.

And that was the situation in a nutshell. Rantaro predicted that things would start happening quite quickly very soon, though it was improbable that an actual murder happened for the next two days, at least. If something of that sort did happen earlier, it would probably have to do with the trio he was clueless about: Tenko, Angie and Himiko.

And that considered, Rantaro decided that it still wasn't time for him to start acting himself. Instead, his best option would be taking advantage of the plots of the others. Simply adapting to what they would do in order to step onto the best path forward.

Rantaro finally left his room then, and he went to get something to eat. There wasn't a lot of other people around at the time. Kirumi, Tenko and Tsumugi were also having breakfast at the same time, but apart from that it was pretty quiet.

After eating, Rantaro started moving around the school and nearby. He didn't have any specific destination, and was mostly just wandering around while keeping an eye on whatever could be important, from the movements of the other students, to any changes in the environment.

He saw Kaito follow Kokichi around from a distance (he didn't know if the smaller boy noticed), he saw Korekiyo run into the classroom building as if he was late to something, he saw Himiko and Maki going back inside the dormitory together, he saw Tsumugi talking to Tenko while both of them seemed to be wary of any interlopers, and he saw Ryoma jump out of a second floor window of the classroom building, rolling to reduce the impact.

Also, he did not see Gonta at all, which was significant in and of itself.

Rantaro saw quite a lot, but just seeing things wasn't going to be enough. He actually had to try and understand them. So after spending quite a few hours just observing, Rantaro decided to finally act. He saw Himiko leave the dormitory again and walked up to her.

"Ah, Himiko. Did you go to have a nap?" He asked, even though he knew quite well that was not the case. He had found that people were more inclined to volunteer information by correcting other people, rather than by answering direct questions. That held true for Himiko too.

"Nah. I was actually talking with Maki." She replied.

"Really?" Rantaro acted surprised "She's not really the sociable sort. What happened, did she confess her love to you or something else private?"

"Nah." Himiko replied with the exact same tone as before "She just wanted to know more about my feats as a phantom thief." She nodded her head "Maki asked a lot of question, but mostly it was me talking. Kinda feeling thirsty now. See ya." And she walked away.

Rantaro watched her go with a thoughtful expression in his eyes. He only had one word for that situation: Suspicious. Especially considering what he had heard from Maki before.

Suspicious things were possible threats, but also possible opportunities, so Rantaro decided to keep an eye on Maki.

+0+

In sharp contrast to Rantaro, Shuuichi's awakening that day was far from peaceful, and in fact, it was very jarring and loud. The television screen on his room flared to life before it was even six in the morning, showing Monokuma.

"Good Morning to you!" Said bear spoke in a loud and annoying voice.

"Argh!" Shuuichi gasped awake, feeling not unlike when he used to be woken up via bucket of cold water.

"Puhuhu, looks like someone has overslept!" Monokuma taunted him.

"Overslept?" Shuuichi asked, looking around "What do you mean? The sun isn't even up yet!" Shuuichi spoke rashly.

"Oh? And Captain Saihara doesn't want to observe his military discipline." Monokuma spoke with a dark smile "Looks like you still haven't woken up quite yet. So, let me help you with that!"

At the next moment, the screen showing Monokuma suddenly showed flashing images and emitted an even more jarring tune, to the point where Shuuichi began to feel physically ill.

"Gah! Stop!" Shuuichi pleaded, trying in vain to cover both his eyes and ears at the same time.

Mercifully, the flashing loudness stopped at that moment, and Monokuma returned to the screen.

"PUHUHUHUHU!" He laughed "So, are you awake now? It's time to face the day!" And the screen turned off again.

Shuuichi looked at it, baffled by the whole thing. He briefly considered going back to sleep, but there was no way he was going to be able to relax and close his eyes again after something like that had happened, so he resigned himself to staying awake.

He spent some time thinking about the things that had been going on and daydreaming, which was only interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Hey, Shuuichi, are you awake?" It was Kaede.

He blinked in surprise and looked at the time. Somehow it was already eight and a half. Where had the time gone?

"I am!" He shouted, then walked up to open the door.

"You're not looking so good." Kaede said upon seeing him "Did something happen?"

"Monokuma woke me up really early." Shuuichi replied, leaving the room to stand beside her.

"Weird." She commented, before shaking her head "Anyway, what shall we do today?"

"I want to talk to Kokichi and see what he has been doing." Shuuichi said, surprising himself a little with the idea "I also want to let him know about the thing with Kaito and Rantaro."

"Right." Kaede nodded "I'll see what Tsumugi is doing, and then I'll talk to Kirumi, I think."

"Okay. See you later." Shuuichi said, and then the two split up.

+0+

It didn't take long for Kaede to find Tsumugi. The girl was eating breakfast at the dining room, together with Tenko and Tsumugi, so she could complete both her objectives at once.

Kaede went to grab some food for herself and then walked up to their table.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" She asked.

"Not at all!" Tenko moved her chair to open up space for Kaede.

Kirumi replied with "No objections." while Tsumugi simply made a gesture of assent. Kaede sat down.

The next few minutes were fairly easy-going. The four ate and talked among each other, with Tenko doing most of the talking, almost as if trying to have conversations with all three girls at once. During that time, both Himiko and Maki joined the table. Still, besides that there was very little worth noting, but Kaede remembered something, and decided to seek an explanation.

"By the way Kirumi... Did you see Gonta today?" She asked with the tone of casualness only seasoned spies were capable of emulating "He's usually eating here at this hour..."

Kirumi's face didn't even twitch as she replied "Oh, I asked him to do something, so he might be a little late today."

"Tch, wherever that degenerate male goes is of no consequence..." Tenko grumbled in a low voice.

"Really? What's he doing, then?" Kaede asked, completely ignoring Kirumi's implication that she didn't want to speak any more of it.

"It's just something only he can do." Kirumi said, seemingly not perturbed "Nothing special."

"Then I'll have to ask him about it when I meet him later." Kaede said with a nod.

Kirumi didn't seem to have any objections. Tsumugi and Himiko were simply watching the interplay with slight amusement, while Tenko was looking between the two without understanding the subtext. Maki didn't seem to care either way.

Kaede decided to push things a bit. She got up from her chair.

"I lost track of the time!" She exclaimed "Sorry, but I have to go!" And she half-ran out of the dining room.

But she didn't keep running after that, instead slowing down and listening closely to see if something interesting happened. It did.

"Himiko, could you come with me for a bit? I have something to ask you, but it is a bit embarrassing..." That was Maki talking.

"Eh? I guess..." Was Himiko's response, and then Kaede heard the sound of the two walking away from the table.

Almost immediately after that, Tsumugi spoke up:

"What's your favorite food, Tenko?" She asked.

"Me? Ah... I guess I really like Katsudon..." Tenko replied.

"What types of Katsudon do you eat?" Tsumugi asked.

And so on, as Tsumugi seemed to want to talk to Tenko about nothing but food. The other girl soon got into it, going into detail about spices and meat grades. Kirumi excused herself from the table some time after, saying that she had finished. The conversation still continued.

Kaede resumed her walking, while thinking about those events. There was no way they weren't connected to each other. Tsumugi and Maki had to be acting together somehow, but what could be the meaning of their actions? What could be their true objective?

Kaede didn't know, and she wasn't certain she'd find out before it was too late.

+0+

Shuuichi's plan hit a snag almost as soon as it started: He couldn't find Kokichi.

He walked around the whole school, going through the most popular spots, and he saw literally everyone except for Kokichi and Gonta. And the most infuriating thing was that it wasn't like Kokichi had simply vanished. Shuuichi asked both Korekiyo and Miu about Kokichi when he passed by them during his search, and both of them said to have seen him wandering around.

It was just that Shuuichi simply kept missing him for some reason. His mental sigh was interrupted by Rantaro's voice.

"Is something wrong?" He asked with concern.

It was a valid question, given that Shuuichi had stopped right in the middle of the dirt path that circled the school, seemingly without reason.

"It's just that..." Shuuichi sighed "I was looking for Kokichi, but somehow I can't find him no matter how much I look."

"Hmm... That is interesting." Rantaro said.

"What is?" Shuuichi asked.

"Just a bit ago, I saw Kokichi walking towards the southeastern part of the grounds." Rantaro spoke "And I saw that Kaito was following him."

"Really? That is strange..." Shuuichi said "Well, I guess I'll go look there now."

"I'll go with you." Rantaro said "I want to know what this is all about."

Shuuichi just shrugged, as he didn't have any reason to decline. The two walked towards the place Rantaro indicated, which was just a clearing next to a warehouse in the middle of a dense thicket of trees.

The two checked inside the warehouse, but neither Kokichi nor Kaito were there. Shuuichi sighed after they left.

"I guess I'll have to look somewhere else..." But then he noticed that Rantaro had suddenly stopped "What's wrong?" He asked.

Rantaro raised a hand to ask for a moment, and then started walking slowly through the clearing while looking at the ground. He got to the treeline and then crouched, looking at the roots with an incredible intensity.

Shuuichi held his breath almost without realizing it, and then Rantaro looked at him and said "Here."

"What?" Shuuichi asked.

"I thought something seemed odd about this part of the ground, and I think this place has been disturbed." Rantaro clarified.

"Disturbed? Like, someone moved through there?" Shuuichi asked.

Rantaro nodded "And the weird thing is... Only this part is disturbed, nothing around it deeper into the treeline, so if I'm right..." He forced his hand underneath one of the roots and seemed to try and grab something.

Then, with a grunt of effort, Rantaro pushed aside... the ground.

"Huh?!" Shuuichi was astonished.

That was almost like a magic trick, but apparently that bit of the ground was actually some kind of movable hatch, which was concealed in an amazing way.

"They should have gone through here." Rantaro said, nodding to the hole, which had a ladder going down into the darkness.

Almost without words, the two climbed down the ladder and followed the path. It was completely dark, but it was a small corridor that they could navigate via touch. However, soon enough they were reaching a point where they started to see, and then they heard muffled voices.

Rantaro and Shuuichi hurried at that, soon reaching a door that seemed to lead to an illuminated place, considering the light escaping from its cracks.

"Dammit, and it sounded so cool, too...!" It was Kokichi's voice.

The duo opened the door together, and were blinded by the light within. There was a "Huh?" from Kaito, and them their eyes adjusted.

The room was very simple and bare, only the color white covering most of the small space. Both Kokichi and Kaito were there. Apart from that, and from the door they had just went through, there were only two more things. A very heavy looking metal door, and something that looked like one of those card readers, which was beside it.

"Oh, how lucky!" Kokichi clapped his hands together "Now we have enough people! Did you guys follow Kaito while he was following me?"

"Nah." Rantaro shook his head "I just noticed the traces you left at the door and figured there would be something there."

"Wow, that's really impressive." Kaito noted.

"What kind of place is this anyway?" Shuuichi asked.

"That is the entrance to what is known as a Dead Room." Kokichi explained helpfully "It's a place where you can risk your life in exchange for an advantage in the game."

Rantaro gave him a look, clearly trying to decide whether or not he should believe such a straightforward explanation.

"He's telling the truth." Kaito piped up "You can just hold up your Monopad to this reader to get an explanation, so there's really no point in him lying about it."

Rantaro raised an eyebrow "I wouldn't expect Kokichi to not lie just because there's no point doing it." He spoke.

"Hahaha!" Kokichi laughed, in a slightly startled sound "Rantaro really does get me. But I'm just so excited about doing this, and I had thought I was gonna have to wait..."

"How so?" Shuuichi had to ask.

"The rule of this Dead Room is that it can only be entered by three people at a time, no more and no less, and me and Kaito alone weren't enough." Kokichi replied.

"So, you want to go in..." Rantaro spoke "But before that, how did you even know there was something like that in the first place?"

"Because of my perk!" Kokichi said "But the details are a secret." He put a finger to his mouth.

Shuuichi got the urge to try and get him to reveal more information, but restrained himself, that wasn't the time.

"Guess I'll have to accept that for now." Rantaro shrugged "I would be willing to go inside along with you two, but first, Shuuichi had something he wanted to talk to you about, Kokichi."

"Really?" Said person looked at Shuuichi "I'll admit it. Whatever thing you're thinking off, I totally did it." He laughed.

Shuuichi shook his head, refusing to let himself be fazed by Kokichi's behavior "Actually, I wanted to to talk about the thing the three of us discussed." He indicated Rantaro and Kaito.

"Ah, you mean the plans for breaking the game!" Kaito realized.

"Breaking the game? That sounds really interesting! Tell me more." Kokichi smiled broadly.

"We don't really have any plans so far, but we decided to share information to try and figure out the 'flaws in the system' of this game, as Kaito put it." Rantaro said "Of course, we'd take whatever information you gave us with a pinch of salt, but still..."

"How mean of you to say that!" Kokichi cried loudly, before immediately recovering "Well, if I feel like it, I guess I could tell you some things..." He then looked at Shuuichi "But enough about that! We need to decide who is going inside the room. Shuuichi, do you want to? Because if so, then we are going to have to choose who doesn't get in!"

Shuuichi shook his head "No, I'm fine. I'm not really in a hurry to risk my life just yet."

"Suit yourself." Kokichi shrugged "Okay, guys! Let's go!"

"Don't worry, Shuuichi!" Kaito assured him "I'll tell you if I find out anything important inside!"

And with that, Rantaro pressed his Monopad to the reader (as Kaito and Kokichi had already done so), and the door opened. Before they went in, Rantaro took the chance to read the information that appeared on his Monopad.

"'Any unregistered participants going in will be considered as breaking the rules, and suffer the appropriate punishment', hmm..." Rantaro read that line out loud "I guess they are really serious about this three people thing."

"Let's get moving, then!" Kokichi urged the others "See you later, Shuuichi!"

He more or less dragged the other two through the door, which subsequently closed.

Shuuichi felt a strange sense of loss upon seeing that, but shrugged it off, he had other things to do.


	8. Room of Cheats and Survival

Rantaro felt a sense of familiarity as he stepped inside the Dead Room and the door closed behind him. Looking at the area, he understood the feeling, as he knew exactly what kind of game this Dead Room was all about.

"Looks like we are gonna have to deal with a trust exercise this time." He commented.

The main feature of the room were five small tables scattered around, each of those tables having three chairs set around them. There was also a variety of items on top the tables, different ones for each. The table closest to them had three decks of playing cards, each in front of a chair. There was also a three-way divider clearly separating the areas that belonged to each of the players, and it was tall enough that they wouldn't be able to see over it even while standing, much less sitting.

Above it, attached to the ceiling were two things: A screen turned down, to allow people sitting on the chairs to read it (when it was turned on), the second thing... was a gun. A very intimidating-looking turret gun.

"Trust exercise?" Kaito turned to ask what Rantaro meant.

"I already felt that it was likely considering that you need to have three people to enter, but looking at this set-up, I am now pretty sure." Rantaro explained "Those are games based on the Prisoner's Dilemma. Cooperative games where one of the players can obtain an advantage by screwing over someone else. I call them trust exercises, because this is what they all boil down to in the end."

"How interesting." Kokichi smiled "That means to win, you need to be able to trust the other players. Can you two trust me?"

"Sure." Kaito said immediately, causing Kokichi's expression to change visibly for a moment.

"If it was outside here, there was no way." Rantaro said "But within this game, I can trust you, since you're too smart to be seduced by such small short-term advantages."

"Hahaha, you're really a confident guy." Kokichi replied "But in that case, how about you two? Can I be sure you're not going to betray me somehow?"

"Of course!" Kaito assured him with a thumbs up "There's no way I'm going to give those bastards the pleasure of falling for their tricks!"

Rantaro let out a startled laugh at that. That answer really suited Kaito. Then he gave his own answer.

"I'm also pretty smart." He said. That was enough.

Kokichi's grin broadened slightly upon hearing that, and he said "Then I guess there's no reason we can't start right now. How about we do the playing cards one first?" Without waiting for a response, Kokichi moved to the table and sat on one of the chairs.

Kaito and Rantaro followed him and sat on the other two chairs. Rantaro noted that the chairs were bolted to the floor. Only a few moments after they sat down, the screen above lit up, and they heard Monokuma's voice coming from some sort of hidden speakers:

"Helloooo, you guys!" It greeted them cheerily "Here is Monokuma D, and I have to thank you for finding the first Dead Room so soon!" In fact, the voice sounded downright friendly "I thought I would continue waiting bored for a while, so this is a nice surprise!"

"A different Monokuma?" Rantaro asked.

"Yes! I am the Monokuma who is responsible for managing the Dead Rooms and related matters." The voice spoke again.

"Does that mean the Monokuma we have been seeing until now is Monokuma A?" Kaito asked.

"Indeed! He is Monokuma A, the host of the killing game and one of the two Monokuma to have physical bodies, the lucky bastards." Monokuma D grumbled "Anyway, let's not talk any more about that. I need to explain to you guys how this Dead Room works." He stopped for a bit, waiting for them to focus on him, and then kept speaking:

"As you can see, this Dead Room is composed of five different games. You guys need to complete only three of them in order to finish the Dead Room and obtain your rewards, which will be given based on your performance in the games.

"This particular game is the Card Addition Game." The way he spoke, you could tell it was supposed to be in capital letters "Each one of you will have access to a partial deck of cards, containing all cards of a particular suit. One of you will also have an extra card, the Joker, which is both an advantage and a disadvantage at the same time. Do you guys understand the setup so far?" He asked.

"Yes." Both Rantaro and Kaito said.

"Nah, but I'll wing it, so don't worry about it." Was Kokichi's response.

"Okay then. At its heart, this game is very simple. It is all about addition." Monokuma explained "I'll show you a number on this screen, and the three of you will have to select one card each, one at a time, based on whose name lights up. The numbers on them have to add up to that number. In this, the royal cards have values of ten, eleven and twelve, while the ace card has a value of both one and thirteen at the same time."

"So... Are there no tens?." Kokichi asked.

"No." Monokuma replied "Now, just having to add numbers would not be any fun by itself, so we are going to subtract things as well." The screen changed, showing the names of the three of them, and beneath each name was the number two hundred. Above their names, at the very top of the screen, was a space which would probably contain their "target number".

"Each of you will start with seventy points. Your points will be reduced based on the numbers of the cards you use, and your goal is to end up between two and negative two points." Monokuma continued "Those who fail to do so will be considered losers, and immediately executed." The turret gun moved menacingly "Of course, if anyone dies, the surviving ones will receive the appropriate reward and get to leave, since none of the games can be played with less than three people."

'Hmmm...' Rantaro was thinking through the specifics. It sounded somewhat familiar.

"Now, for some more specific rules." Monokuma continued "The game will last for eight rounds. If you guys fail to match the addition number, the person or people with the lowest number on that round will be punished by not having the number subtracted from their score, but the difference between what you got and the target number will be added to your score.

"I know this is a bit complicated, so here's an example: If the target number is fifteen and you guys place two sevens and a six, then the result would be twenty, and the person who placed six will, instead of reducing their score by six, it will instead be increased by five. If there's a tie on the last place, then all of those will receive the punishment points." Monokuma said "The others will still have their numbers subtracted normally, though, so don't worry."

"There is also the matter of the joker card. Like I said, it is both good and bad for the holder. The card can only be played at the last round, and the number on it will be whatever the holder decides, even numbers beyond thirteen. But no negative numbers, of course. However, that number is not deducted from your number score. Instead, the number deducted is the sum of the numbers of the other two cards.

"And, as a final rule, none of you are allowed to communicate with each other after the beginning of the game, which means after opening your decks. No talking, no noises, nothing that could be used to transmit information around." Monokuma said "Rule breakers will be automatically considered losers."

He stopped, waiting to see if any of the participants had any questions. As it turned out, one did. It was Kaito.

"You said that the ace had the value of both one and thirteen. But how is that decided? Do I need to announce which of the two values I choose for the addition when I play it?" He asked.

"That is a good question!" Monokuma admitted "And the answer is no. For the purposes of the addition, if there is an ace involved, then the result of the addition is technically two separate values, one for each possible value. As long as either of the two matches the target number, then the round is considered a success." Monokuma explained "If there is more than one ace involved, then there are more possible values, but the idea is the same."

"Right. I understand." Kaito said, nodding.

Rantaro thought about the rules. He had played lots of games involving those sorts of "playing with numbers". It was never a question of mathematical skill, but always based on being able to realize what were the tricks hidden behind the straightforward game, what was its true core, and what were the traps placed to trip the players.

The first issue was...

"How are the target numbers we have to hit decided?" Rantaro asked Monokuma "I assume they can't be random, because it might make the game unwinnable."

"You're right about that." Monokuma said "The numbers have been decided previously, and they are all within an achievable range for the cards you have."

"Ahh... You two already asked all the interesting questions... Now I have nothing to ask..." Kokichi complained.

Kaito chuckled in amusement. Monokuma waited to see if anyone else had anything to say, but no one put forward any other comments.

"If there are no more questions, then I'll announce the beginning of the game. Are you ready?" He asked. No one answered, but that was already an answer in itself. The image of Monokuma on the screen grinned "In that case, let the game... begin!"

His face disappeared, replaced by the same screen he had showed before.

Rantaro opened his deck and looked at the cards. He had the suit of spades, and after looking for a bit, discovered that he was the one who had the joker.

He had mixed feelings about that. The joker was the second issue, as he suspected that the game would ultimately rely on how it was used. It was a very troublesome card to have to deal with, but having the joker meant he didn't have to rely on anyone else to deal with that issue, so he didn't have to worry about them.

The field of the target number was filled. It was 17. Then Rantaro's name lit up. So, he was the first one. Rantaro placed a 9 of spades on the table, and a number nine appeared above his name (opposite to where his "total number" was).

Then it was Kaito's turn. He placed a 4, and then Kokichi finished with another 4.

There was a noise of celebration as the system verified that they had achieved the target number. Then their respective scores were subtracted. Rantaro now had 61 points, while Kaito and Kokichi had 66.

Rantaro's actions may have seemed simple, but they were actually well thought out. Leaving an even number for the other two to reach meant they could place matching numbers to add up to it, thus making their scores equal and reducing the chance of someone losing out.

It also reduced the chances of someone else placing an ace. Rantaro had the impression that leaving the aces for the final round would be the best chance they would have of actually finishing the game successfully. Their properties made it clear that they would be important, and Rantaro hoped the other two would see that.

This time, the target number was 19. Kaito was the first to have his name light up, and it only took a bit for him to put his own card. It was 9. Rantaro was called next, and he placed a 5, which was matched by Kokichi. Again the round was a success.

Then the target number changed to 37. Kokichi was the first to play. His card was the king, which meant 12. Kaito placed a king as well, bringing the total to 24. Then it was Rantaro's turn, and he could complete the round with the ace, for thirteen extra points. However, that was not what he planned to do.

Instead, he placed a 6.

There was a jarring noise as the system confirmed their failure. They had only reached 30, which meant they were off by 7, which was added to Rantaro's score.

The standings had changed to Rantaro with 63 points, Kokichi with 49 points and Kaito with 45 points.

He sighed in relief. That had to have been enough to signal the others that he had the joker, and to prevent them from using their aces. That had been the most uncertain part of the game, and he was glad that it was over.

The target number changed to 29, and Rantaro smiled. He could work with that. He was the first to place a card again, and he placed a 7. Both Kokichi and Kaito placed their queens (11+11) to complete the addition.

Rantaro 34 Kokichi 23 Kaito 19

And so it continued. In the fifth round, the number was 23. Kaito placed 5, Kokichi placed 6, and Rantaro placed his king (12). In the following round the number was once again 29. Kokichi placed 9, Kaito placed his jack (10) and Rantaro did the same.

Now, with two rounds left, Rantaro was left with 34 points, while Kokichi had 23 and Kaito had 19. They had essentially done a dance in order to stay within a certain range of values, since no one could place the same card two times (as they only had one), and thus when thinking about what cards to play to keep things going right, they had to think about which cards the others had used as well.

By that point, it would be impossible for them to not have noticed that the target numbers were always prime numbers, so it wasn't a surprise when the next was once again 19. Rantaro placed 8, Kaito placed 4 and Kokichi placed 7.

And with that, it was over. Rantaro had 26 points left, while Kaito had 15 and Kokichi had sixteen. That meant whatever the next number was, they had a foolproof way of beating the game.

The target number for the final round was 2, which Rantaro was sure would have been a pretty nasty surprise had they not already won. But it was indeed a prime number, so it was technically fair game.

Rantaro could imagine the ugly scene when that number appeared after the aces had been used. There would be no way to win, and so at least one person would die. People frequently went desperate in such situations, as he knew from experience.

Monokuma's voice came from the screen again "May the joker holder please declare their chosen number?"

Rantaro grinned and spoke "Zero."

Then both Kaito and Kokichi placed their aces in turn, meaning one of the possible results of the number addition was 2, since each ace could represent 1.

Then it came time to make the subtraction. Both Kokichi and Kaito lost 14 points, since the ace was both 1 and 13 at the same time, which meant 14 for the purposes of that. Kokichi ending up with 2 while Kaito had 1. Rantaro had the sum of their numbers, hence 28, which meant his final number was 26 – 28 = -2. All of them had won.

But really, they would have won no matter what was the final target number, as Rantaro could have just chosen a number that was 2 less than the target number, thus allowing the aces to win the day anyway.

Really, the most difficult part of it all was arranging their numbers to end up on the right range, which was from 26 to 30 for Rantaro, and from 12 to 16 for Kokichi and Kaito. Still, they managed it.

"TATARATAAAAAA! You guys did it! You have managed to win at the first game!" Monokuma shouted eagerly "Please, take your reward."

That said, the top of the partition opened up, revealing a very complex looking key, which was similar to those used for bank vaults.

Kokichi grabbed it, then handed it to Rantaro "Since you were the MVP this time." He winked.

"I guess one of us will get each reward?" Kaito suggested "What game should we play next, then?"

+0+

Shuuichi left the underground area and went to look for Kaede. And soon enough he was feeling frustrated again, as he couldn't find her. Except that this time no one seemed to have any ideas where to look for her. The closest thing he had to a clue was Kirumi saying that she had eaten breakfast together with Kaede earlier.

He saw Himiko following Tenko around, he saw Korekiyo and Ryoma speaking quietly about something, he talked with Keebo about his search, and the other boy promised that he would keep his eyes open for her.

In the process, he had searched through all the public places in the classroom building, and yet Kaede was nowhere to be found. He went to the dormitory and knocked on all the doors, but Angie was the only one who responded from her room, but she hadn't seem Kaede, and was busy doing some art.

After that came time to examine the grounds around the buildings. He had just gone inside the thick vegetation path that was one of the two ways to reach the fountain area when he heard his name being spoken.

"Shuuichi?" It was Kaede.

"Kaede?" He turned to see her coming out from behind a tree "What are you doing here?"

She sighed as she walked towards him "I was observing this path, in case someone tried to so something sneaky around here."

"Why this specific place?" Shuuichi asked her.

"No reason." Kaede replied "There are many places around here that can be used for that purpose. But I can't watch all of them, and so I can't prevent what will happen. I just decided to watch this place in case I get lucky and stumble onto something I can intervene."

"Something is going to happen already?" Shuuichi asked, realizing what she was implying.

"Something is already happening." Kaede said. She informed him of what she had experienced earlier, and he took the chance to talk about his own information.

"So those three are playing together, huh." Kaede said "I hope they can find something useful."

"So you think someone is going to attempt murder today?" Shuuichi asked.

"No. It's still a little too early." Kaede shook her head "But they are certainly trying to set up something."

"And you want to catch them in the act? Isn't that dangerous?" Shuuichi asked.

"Yeah." Kaede replied wistfully. Shuuichi had the impression that she was remembering something from the past.

"Why don't we go see if we can find Gonta?" Shuuichi suggested, feeling strangely uncomfortable.

"Okay." Kaede nodded "Kirumi knows where he is, so she should be relatively close to his position." She closed her eyes "Last time I saw her, Kirumi was leaving the dining hall. And she stayed there for a while, so wherever Gonta is should be close to there, probably." She deduced.

"So maybe one of the locked doors on the basement floor?" Shuuichi proposed "The stairs are pretty close to the dining hall."

"That's possible." Kaede said "Let's go, then."

The duo walked back towards the student building. They passed by the dining hall to see if Kirumi had gone back there. She hadn't, and in fact the only people there were Korekiyo and Ryoma. So they went down the stairs to look into the basement rooms.

They had barely finished going down the stairs when Shuuichi saw Kirumi, standing a few meters ahead on the corridor. He and Kaede moved towards her, and halfway there they saw someone else approach her from the other side.

It was Gonta.

"Ah, you're finally back." Kaede spoke up, causing both Gonta and Kirumi to notice their presence.

They walked towards Shuuichi and Kaede, and Kirumi spoke "I suppose you want to ask what Gonta has been doing?"

"Gonta sorry for having been gone for so long." He apologized.

"Why don't we go discuss this in the library? There's space for all of us to sit comfortably there." Kirumi said.

It was technically a question, but it had been asked in full awareness that her proposal would be met with no opposition.

The four walked together back up the stairs and towards the library. They sat at one of the tables and Kaede wasted no time starting:

"Right Gonta, where were you since last night?"

Shuuichi looked at her in surprise, he hadn't realized that Gonta had been missing for so long. Had she just noticed that? He looked at the duo and saw that Kirumi was the same as usual, but Gonta's reaction was enough to show that Kaede was right.

Gonta looked at Kirumi, who nodded. He then started talking.

"Gonta was in... Connection Room." He said "It is... How can Gonta explain... A room connected with every other place."

"What was in that room?" Shuuichi asked.

"Lots of machines." Gonta said "It was like a factory, with machines taking things to other machines, and the other machines would leave the room through some tunnels."

"What kinds of things?" Kaede asked.

"There were crates of food, cleaning robots, and all sorts of closed containers Gonta couldn't see what was inside." He replied "And also... weapons."

"Heavy weapons." Kirumi clarified "Heavy machine guns, mortars, even missiles. But none of those were the really important part. Gonta, you should tell them."

He blinked in surprise, but then started to talk "There was electronic map of this place. Most of it was blanked out, but Gonta could see the places where the tunnels led."

"From his descriptions, it seems like there are very few places around the public parts of the school that these tunnels don't reach." Kirumi explained.

"And... And Gonta found out... Where we are." He continued.

Both Shuuichi and Kaede stiffened upon hearing those words, as well as the grave tone of voice Gonta had adopted. Neither of the two hurried him on, just waiting for his next sentence.

"Diagram... The diagram had an altitude number. It was over 60 kilometers high." He said.

"60 kilometers... Isn't that the altitude of the Mesosphere?" Kaede noted "So we are in some kind of... super-advanced airship?"

"Yes, indeed!" Monokuma confirmed, startling them with his sudden appearance "Of course, you may choose not to believe it, but it makes no difference in the end. Each and every one of you are trapped here with no chance of escape!"

His tone had become extremely menacing at the end, leaving the four at a loss over how to respond. However, he kept talking.

"Still, it's a pity." His tone was back to normal "The whole point of that room was to help in committing a great murder, but spilling everything about it so easily like that... That's no fun at all."

"We're not doing this for fun." Kirumi said.

"Really, such a pity..." He ignored her "I know! If that's the case, then there's no reason why I shouldn't let everyone go inside! That could be interesting..." And he disappeared just as suddenly as he had appeared.

After a moment of silence, Kirumi started speaking "Does that mean-" But she was interrupted by a school announcement.

"Gooooood afternoon, everyone! This is a special announcement! Due to some circumstances, I have decided to give all of you a special gift!" He stopped for a moment "And this gift is special passes to one of the rooms which is normally forbidden entry: The Little Master Room! I hope you will make good use of them, because this is a privilege that doesn't come easily!"

Immediately, the four heard the noises of notifications coming from their Monopads, and they all took a look to see what was that they had been saddled with.

'1 Hour Pass for the Little Master Room' And it had a timer, as well as a small map showing which room it was.

It was pretty straightforward.

"Mine is different." Gonta said, showing the words in his Monopad to the others.

'Because of your Perk, you don't need a pass to enter the Little Master Room. I'll give you something else later, just to make it fair. Aren't I a great host?' And there was ASCII art of a grinning Monokuma.

They were interested in what kind of thing Monokuma was going to give Gonta, but there was something much more important to think about, and so Kaede brought Shuuichi aside and spoke:

"This is dangerous. There is no way that place is as simple as it seems." She sighed "Not to mention how most of us will definitely go there, making our movements more predictable."

"Which means it will be easier for other people to accomplish their plans." Shuuichi understood what she was getting at.

"We are gonna have to split up." Kaede said "One to watch the room and the other to keep an eye outside."

"Then I'll stay outside." Shuuichi decided immediately. He really didn't want to enter the Little Master Room.

"So I'll go inside. Be careful, Shuuichi." She said.

"You too." He replied.

She smiled slightly and shook her head "You don't need to worry about me." She said.

There was an odd tone to her voice, but Shuuichi decided not to question it. He nodded, and then the two split up.

+0+

The choice of the second game to play had not been nearly as simple and effortless as the first one. In the first choice, they had no idea what kinds of things they would be facing, but after going through one, it became possible to use that knowledge to their advantage. As such, the trio tacitly decided to examine everything carefully before making any decisions.

Rantaro looked around for a bit before choosing one particular table to examine more closely. On top of said table was a huge and elaborate dollhouse, the kind that definitely hadn't been built for actual children to play, but instead built by a professional as a show piece.

However, of course it wasn't just an ordinary show piece. Just from a cursory examination, Rantaro was able to determine that there were several parts of the model which were designed to be moved and shifted around, including ways of raising entire walls to get easy access to the rooms.

There were also symbols drawn into the walls and floors, symbols that looked like geometrical shapes with strange, stylized letters inside them. Rantaro had a few ideas about what kind of game that would be, but he certainly couldn't be sure enough to be confident in choosing that game.

He looked around to see if the other two were having any better luck. Kokichi was examining a table with a trio of those games that involved moving a ball through a complex environment by tilting the (closed) case. Similar to the game they had done first, there was also a screen above that particular table.

He didn't seem to be having more luck than Rantaro himself, so the latter turned his eyes to Kaito, who was looking at a trio of complicated pachinko machines (instead of being two-dimensional like most, they actually had three layers) on a table that was pressed against the wall. He was examining the table closely, and then turned his attention to the wall, which he also looked closely, pressing his fingers against it.

And from his expression, Kaito seemed to have discovered something, so Rantaro walked towards him and watched carefully, being joined by Kokichi soon after.

And it didn't take long after that for Kaito to finish his examinations and turn to the two:

"We can win this one." He said "It's totally certain."

"Hihihi. That's really interesting to hear you say something like that. I'm sure Monokuma D is gonna be sad that you think this game is so easy." Kokichi said.

"That can't be helped, since this is a pachinko machine." Kaito said "Usually pachinko is based on luck, but since this is one of the games in this room, there has to be a trick to it, so I just needed to figure out the trick."

"And what trick have you figured out?" Rantaro asked, curious.

"This thing is tilted, so the balls are more likely to end up on the third layer." Kaito explained "In fact, this whole room is tilted slightly. It would be really easy to tell if this was on the same level as the outside, but since it's at the bottom of a ladder..."

"Really? I didn't notice it." Rantaro replied "Still, considering there are seven holes on the third layer, just knowing where the balls are likely to go is not enough. Also, if that's the case, then most of the balls will end up falling off, specially given that the dead zone of the third layer is right on the lowest part."

"It depends on the specific rules of the game, of course." Kaito said "But there are a lot of possible extra tricks to use, so I'm confident of victory regardless of what the situation ends up being."

"In that case, I'll accept playing this one." Kokichi spoke.

"Then I guess it's decided." Rantaro said.

Each of the three choose one of the three machines, Kaito taking the center one while Rantaro went on his left and Kokichi on his right. After a few attempts to pull the lever to initiate the game, they realized that it would only work if all three did it at the same time.

They did so, and the three machines turned on with a whirling noise, soon followed by Monokuma D's voice.

"So, the three of you have chosen the Pachinko Game as your second game. It is a nice choice, since I imagine you would prefer something more simple after the previous game."

The three listened carefully to every single word, knowing that one little detail could mean the difference between life and death.

"As you guys can see, this is a pachinko game. However, there are no such things as extra balls, or a designated target. Instead, you guys have to bet on a particular pocket for one of the balls to fall into, like a roulette.

"Apart from that, there are only three mechanics that need to be explained. The first is how you obtain the balls for the game. Just like normal Pachinko, they are bought with currency, except that the only currency accepted in these machines..."

Hidden slots in all three of the machines opened, revealing nasty looking needle and syringe combinations that connected to plastic tubes.

"... is your blood. One ball costs ten milliliters of blood. Also, you can't keep inserting currency during a game, and must wait for it to be over if you want to buy more balls, starting a new game.

"The second mechanic that needs to be explained is the punishment condition. Different from most other games in this room, you won't be punished simply by losing this game, and can in fact try other games after that with no repercussions. However, if all the pockets in your machine end up with balls inside of them, you will have to pay the same amount of your blood as you used to buy the balls. This is to discourage trying to beat the game by simply using a lot of balls, and failure to pay will result in immediate execution."

There were a few moments of silence as they considered that.

"Really, this feels way too familiar." Was Rantaro's comment.

"What an interesting life you must have had." Kokichi replied to him.

"Finally, the last mechanic is how victory works. All three of you must manage to have balls land in the pockets you've chosen, and of course, in the case of the punishment condition, that will not count." He spoke lightly "You can chose to step away at any moment, but you'll only get any benefits from this game if all three of you win."

Kaito closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them before speaking "I'll go first, then."

"So you're sure of your victory?" Rantaro asked.

"Pretty sure." Kaito said and stepped forward.

The other two remained silent. Being the first to play and thus experience whatever traps the game may have was a dangerous position, but since he had been the one to chose that particular game, it was simply fair for him to take the most risk.

Kaito grabbed the syringe and asked "Do I just stick this in my arm?"

Upon receiving a positive reply by Monokuma, Kaito pierced his own left arm with the needle with the ease and technique of a trained nurse. Rantaro wondered where he had learned that.

"How much blood do you wish to pay?" Monokuma asked.

"0.7 liters." Was the reply.

Rantaro could understand why Kaito had chosen as such. It was enough for seventy balls, which was a good number, and yet not enough blood to impair him in any way. Even if the punishment thing happened, Kaito would only experience mild symptoms of blood loss, and whatever information gained from the failure should be worth it.

Rantaro then looked at Kokichi, who had an unreadable expression on his face as he watched Kaito. Rantaro still hadn't been able to fully peg Kokichi's personality, so he was going to take any chances he got to observe the other boy's actions.

Regardless, Kaito's blood was quickly sucked up by the tubes, followed by Monokuma instructing him to remove the needle. Then the machine started spitting out balls into the "launch zone".

"I will bet on pocket number 19." Kaito declared.

That particular pocket was in fact one of the ones in the third layer, specifically the second hole right of the center.

"Understood." Monokuma replied, and the ring around the pocket turned red.

All that finally done, Kaito pressed the button on the right of the machine, sending a wave of balls into the game.

The balls were distributed among the three layers of the machine by a mechanism at the top, and then proceeded into the long and slow process of moving downwards through the numerous obstacles.

Usual pachinko machines did not have even a fraction of such an amount, so the balls descended pretty fast, but that particular machine made each and every ball into an outright journey.

It was only logical, considering how few balls the players would be using.

Regardless, as the balls were falling, Kaito pressed the button again, sending another wave of balls upwards. Looking at the remaining ones in the launch zone, Rantaro estimated that he should have about five more waves left.

As the second wave started splitting among the layers, the first wave was reaching the end. Just as Kaito had expected, most of the balls had eventually found their way to the third layer. Most of them ended up falling into the "dead zone", but two fell into different pockets, though neither of them were pocket 19.

Undeterred, Kaito pressed the button two more times, sending two waves closely packed together. The second wave reached the bottom as well, with similar results, though strangely enough, three pockets in the second layer were filled.

Rantaro then realized what was about to happen just a moment before it did.

As if guided through some mysterious mechanism, most of the balls Kaito had just launched were guided through the first layer, soon filling seven all of the pockets there. Three more pockets were filled in the second layer as well, along with a pocket in the third (also not nineteen) while the other balls fell into the three dead zones.

Rantaro couldn't see Kaito's face, but he saw the other boy's muscles tense up slightly as he pressed the button two more times, and then a third after a second's pause.

The slow progression of the balls seemed to become even slower as the game reached a climax. Little by little, they reached the end, soon filling up the remaining pockets in the second layer. And then, finally Kaito's chosen pocket ended up having a ball reach it, along with another third layer pocket.

That was good news, but things weren't done yet. The punishment condition was two pockets away from being activated, and there was still one wave of balls left.

Once again, they seemed to be guided, except that time they were all heading straight for the third layer. The cheating had reached such blatant levels that Rantaro could have laughed if the situation weren't so tense.

The balls reached the bottom of the third layer, a rain of steel that seemed destined to condemn Kaito to the punishment. However, that was the moment when he acted.

Reaching with both arms, Kaito picked the whole Pachinko machine up from the table, tilting it forward in a single movement. Faced with the inevitability of physics, every single one of the balls ended up falling into a dead zone, leaving the last two pockets untouched.

Kaito put the machine back on the table, and Monokuma's cheery voice appeared again.

"TATARATAAAAAA! You are the winner! If the other two also manage to win, you guys will have won a second game!"

There was a moment of silence, and then Kokichi started laughing:

"HAHAHAHA! I guess it was a bad idea to try to cheat against the Ultimate Cheater!" He shook his head, tears in his eyes.

Rantaro was all business, though he had a small smile on his face:

"Was that your plan from the beginning?" He asked.

"More or less." Was Kaito's reply "The machines were pretty light, and they weren't bolted to the table or anything, and since it was Pachinko and not pinball, I thought it was a possibility they wouldn't have had a tilt sensor." He shook his head "I thought it would work with me just bumping it, but picking it up was always an option."

"What would you have done if the machine actually had a tilt sensor?" Rantaro didn't let up "And you ended up losing?"

"In that case, I would use the experience to change my tactics enough to win." Kaito replied.

Rantaro shook his head in amusement. It looked like he really had been right about Kaito's character.


End file.
